Percy Jackson: Is Episode 6 a musical?

Percy Jackson & the Olympians Episode 6 features musical star Lin Manuel Miranda, but is the episode actually a musical?

Percy Jackson & The Olympians has just landed its sixth episode on Disney+. Adapted from the book series by Rick Riordan, the show follows “12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson, is coming to terms with his newfound divine powers when the sky god, Zeus, accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt; with his friend’s help, Percy must restore order to Olympus.”

This episode calls back to a surprisingly beloved scene from the otherwise loathed 2010 Percy Jackson films, that being the Lotus Casino, in which our characters get trapped in a mind-melting casino while Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” plays, a needle drop that is now infamous amongst Percy Jackson fans.

To top things off, this episode features Lin Manuel Miranda as the Greek god Hermes, which led to some fans wondering if this episode would be a musical one. But is it?

Is Episode 6 a musical?

No, Episode 6 of Percy Jackson & the Olympians is not a musical. And for those wondering, it doesn’t reprise any Lady Gaga songs.

Despite Lin Manuel Miranda, of Hamilton and In the Heights fame, there were no musical – or rapping – numbers within the episode. We only get scenes of him talking with Annabeth and Percy, namely about his relationship with his son, Luke.

Sadly, despite fans hoping we’d get more Lady Gaga, author Rick Riordan, who was heavily involved with the production of Percy Jackson & the Olympians, revealed that the star’s music would not be present. Instead, Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” can be heard in the casino’s lobby.

Posting to social media, the author said “As much as I love Lady Gaga, if some of you seriously think I’d allow any callbacks to certain movies, you haven’t been paying attention for the last decade. The show is its own thing. And IMO it’s so much better! Normalize Bad Movie Erasure.”

Riordan has openly stated his distaste for the movie adaptations of his books over the past ten years, but in regards to how the Lotus Casino was presented, we just might have to cut the films some slack. As we wrote in our Episode 6 review: “Unfortunately, it seems that Percy Jackson Episode 6 may be the series’ weakest so far, which is a shame considering how excited fans were for it. This may oddly become one of the moments where those infamous movies are actually viewed more highly [for their portrayal of the Lotus Casino], as sacrilegious as that feels to say for a fan.”