“It feels like a huge change. It’s a huge shock,” executive producer Craig Silverstein tells EW.

Percy Jackson boss explains season 2 finale twist and how those big changes affect season 3

"It feels like a huge change. It's a huge shock," executive producer Craig Silverstein tells EW.

By Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum is a staff writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2019 and is a published author. Her work has previously appeared in *TV Guide Magazine*, E! News/E! Online, *The Hollywood Reporter*, Mashable, Bustle, IGN, DCComics.com, Inverse, *The Daily Northwestern*, and more.

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January 21, 2026 8:00 a.m. ET

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Walker Scobell in 'Percy Jackson' season 2 finale. Credit:

**This article contains spoilers for the *Percy Jackson and the Olympians* season 2 finale, "The Fleece Works Its Magic Too Well."**

Justice for Thalia Grace (Tamara Smart) on *Percy Jackson and the Olympians.*

Throughout season 2 of Disney+'s Greek mythology series, Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell) has been dreading the potential return of Annabeth's (Leah Sava Jeffries) fallen demigod friend. Unlike Annabeth, he didn't know the powerful daughter of Zeus (Courtney V. Vance, taking over the role from the late Lance Reddick) before she died, and therefore has no idea where her allegiance lies. And now that he's learned the shocking truth about her death, her resurrection in the season 2 finale leaves the series hanging on an ominous note.

It also has the potential to change the show going into season 3. The finale introduced a massive twist in Thalia's origin story from author Rick Riordan's original book series — so much so that Percy (and the rest of world) is right to worry about her return.

In a major change from the source material, Percy and Annabeth learn Thalia didn't die while fighting the Furies — Zeus actually killed the Furies himself, and turned Thalia into the tree at Camp Half-Blood's border because she learned about the Great Prophecy and refused to be the gods' "weapon" against Kronos. She renounced Zeus as her father, and declared her intentions to leave camp with Annabeth and Luke (Charlie Bushnell), so Zeus turned her into the tree against her own wishes. As the only witness, Chiron (Glynn Turman) was ordered by Zeus to lie about what happened, and say Thalia gave up her life to protect the camp.

So while Annabeth was happy when the Golden Fleece healed the tree and brought Thalia back in the present, Percy looked downright pissed. Because Thalia now holds the fate of Olympus in her hands, and she's got an extremely understandable incentive to seek revenge against Zeus and the rest of the gods.

"You guys get nightmares, right? Well, not like mine," Percy says in voiceover. "Because mine just woke up."

Below, *Percy Jackson and the Olympians* executive producer Craig Silverstein explains why they changed Thalia's origin story, how this affects the show going into season 3, and more.

Tamara Smart on 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians'.

Disney/David Bukach

**: Tell me about the decision to change Thalia's origin story from a willing sacrifice while battling the Furies to instead being changed into the tree against her will?**

**CRAIG SILVERSTEIN:** Right, and yet her sacrifice, her turning into the tree, did protect the camp — the barrier powered by her. It won't take that long to see, this feels like a huge change, but what it really does is activate and give weight to the stakes of where this story goes naturally in the books. The last line of the *Sea of Monsters* book is Percy looking at Thalia and saying, "I was looking at a person who could be my best friend or my worst enemy." There's a huge promise to that, that we just want to make sure that we play that. And it plays a lot better if Thalia has a real grudge against her father and Olympus. It makes everything to come just that much more active and real. It feels like a huge change. It's a huge shock.

**How will Thalia and Percy’s relationship change from the books?**

There's a natural rivalry. It's just really amping that all up. Percy in season 2, there's two main things. One is he's afraid of himself ever since he heard the Great Prophecy and learned about his fatal flaw. He's afraid of himself, having that responsibility, of destroying Olympus. And then in his dreams, he's been a target of Kronos and he's seen these dreams where Thalia and Kronos are kind of synonymous. It makes sense to him, "If it could be me, then it could be this person who I also don't know. And one of the things I do know about them is that they have major beef with the gods, even more than I did with my dad who wasn't around that much." This is like on a different level between Thalia and Zeus. You understand why he would have those feelings, that he really understands where she's coming from and he's really afraid of her too.

**With this change to Thalia's origin story, it almost feels like you're paving the way for her to completely switch sides and join Luke's army. Because that would now be understandable after what happened. Although that would be a much bigger change.**

Right. Exactly. [It's] the possibility of it. In the book, you hear about her, and then you see her at the end. There's a huge value to seeing her and meeting her earlier with our flashbacks so that you really understand how things can go wrong. But at the same time, you feel a way about it because you've met her and you know she cares about Luke and Annabeth and you know she's a hero too. It's so messy.

**The actors are all big fans of the book series. What was their reaction when they learned about this change in Thalia's story? **

They were excited about it. If there was a concern, Walker was more concerned about the battle being in camp. I remember being like, "This is a battle, but I just want to point out it's a battle that doesn't actually get that far into camp. It is a battle that has stopped at the border, essentially." So camp hasn't faced its worst threat yet.

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**I was just about to ask about that. Why did you change the location from the Princess Andromeda cruise ship to Camp Half-Blood for the finale battle?**

That was one of the early, early decisions, because it just occurred [to us] that if this season's quest was about saving camp, then you want to make the climax of the episode *saving camp*. And if the question is getting the Fleece on the tree, then it feels natural to run that climax all the way up to getting the Fleece on the tree. The books have a coda chapter or two, and it's okay, but if we made our last episode just like a coda, and they get back, and everything's safe, they do another chariot race, and this time they win, you'd just be waiting for something to happen, only for one little thing to happen at the end when she comes back. It does not a season finale climax make. That's why in season 1, getting Sally back is one of the last things that happened. That's just the way that the escalating serialized drama has to be built. You want your climax to be at the end.

**I love that we still get a little hint of the final chariot race with Annabeth and Tyson during the battle. **

Exactly. It's still there, just in a different way.

**I also love the moment where Tyson saves Percy from Luke during the battle, but I'm sad that we didn't get to see the Party Ponies instead. What happened to them?**

I will tell you, we had them in. They actually stormed in across the field while shooting at the giants. And that was a step past what we could afford and make look great. I love reading all the stories that are like, "They gave them so much more money this year!" [*Laughs*] No, that's not true. But that was heartbreaking. I wanted the Party Ponies, and we had them designed. But we have Chiron with an arrow. I know it's not the same thing... And if you look back, there is one when Chiron is telling Annabeth about the Great Prophecy in [episode] 2. You can see one on the beach in Miami behind him.

Charlie Bushnell on 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians'.

**True! One big change from the books that I think everyone will be happy to see is Tantalus getting dusted during the battle. Why did you want to kill him rather than having him get sent back to the Underworld?**

Yeah, in the books, Dionysus sends him back to the Underworld. There's a lot of ways for you to go back to the Underworld, and it was just to give that character his comeuppance in that moment. And the fun of having Tim Simons grab the turkey leg and have that one moment of glory before he got hit was great. That scene was actually written to be in episode 7, where we were going to check back in at camp and see the situation getting worse as monsters were surrounding it and Chris was secretly letting them in. And then Tantalus died. But we decided to move it into the finale, which was all about camp.

**In the post-credits scene, we see Hylla is still by Circe's side. What does that mean for her potential return and future arc since it doesn’t appear as if Blackbeard destroyed the spa? That's what kickstarts her entire origin story.**

Right, right, right. That was supposed to actually end episode 5. But we were like, "Let's park it at the end." It's good to know that Circe's still out there. But Hylla's story is really told in *Heroes of Olympus... *So I guess there's time to patch that.

**That's just my sneaky way of trying to get you to say that *Heroes of Olympus* will eventually happen on TV.**

We're so neck deep in the *Olympian* saga.

**I'll keep my hope alive. Is Reyna also in the background of those spa scenes? Should fans be looking for Hylla's sister as an Easter egg? **

No. I mean, maybe she's there, but we didn't Easter egg her in the same way that Hylla's obviously in there.

Kevin Chacon on 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians'.

**The campers are now aware that Luke has a whole "team" of spies inside Camp Half-Blood working for Kronos — how does that change things moving forward? Will there be more paranoia about double agent demigods?**

Yeah. They feel like they found that particular cell of Kronies, but there's always the idea that there are more, that there's other spies in camp. Season 3 [is a] winter session, not as many people, so you might see less of it because a lot of people are off at school. But definitely the idea, it's a nervous thing, because they also want camp unity. They don't want to tear each other apart, going on witch hunts, doing loyalty tests, looking for spies. It's a tricky situation.

**Chris attacks Clarisse pretty brutally during this battle, and it's hard to imagine her ever forgiving him to the point of developing a romantic relationship in the future. Some fans hope this means Clarisse's romance will now happen with Silena instead. What are the chances we could be seeing that change in future seasons?**

Chris and Clarisse, it was important to show that there was an attraction early on. Of course, there's this betrayal, but now you're jumping a couple seasons ahead. [*Laughs*] I would just say if the things that certain characters go through change them — as we saw in this season with Clarisse, getting to tell her story — that opens up the possibility that somebody who may have been written off as just this one thing can change once you get to know them and once they go through a trial.

**The bumper sticker on the back of the car Sally was driving caught my eye — is that Paul’s car? Can you reveal who will play him in the future?**

That is definitely his car, but I can't say who [will play the role].

**Have you finished filming season 3 yet?**

No, we're still in it. We're deep in it. We've got two more months or so and quite a lot to shoot.

**We've now seen just how much you've changed from the books this season, so what can we expect from season 3 that will continue surprising fans who think they know what's coming?**

Look for things that happen outside of Percy's point of view, things that are happening in book three that he's just not there to see. Season 3, they will be surprised at how it actually heightens a lot of the beats. A lot of the things that you think are in season 3 that might be changed, take a look at them again with the changes in season 2 and imagine them with those changes applied. And maybe they don't go away — maybe they're even stronger, those turns. Everything's informed by the most consequential decision and change we've made of bringing the Great Prophecy forward. You haven't heard all the words, but the idea that Percy knows about it is the most significant change and is responsible for him learning about his fatal flaw and it allows us to make the turns that we did. It's not just something like, "Note that for later, see you in a few seasons." This fatal flaw is a problem ... and is clearly going to be active in season 3.

It's all about removing the safety, removing the guardrails, so you really believe that Thalia can do this stuff, and Percy can do this stuff, if they're pushed. It helps you understand the Olympians' point of view, frankly, that Poseidon says this season to Percy, that the greatest fear the gods ever had is that their fate would rest in the hands of their children. They're not used to that. They're used to just using them as proxies to kind of get the glory or resolve differences so they don't have to fight each other directly. But with the Titans back, all that stuff's off the table. And the idea that they have to rely on these kids for their fate, the kids that maybe they haven't been the greatest parents to, by those kids' standards, that's an interesting story and that shakes everything up. It's just taking all those elements and dialing them up to 11.

*This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.*

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