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The upcoming reboot of the Percy Jackson series on Disney+ has been promoted by author Rick Riordan as a corrective to the early 2010 film adaptations, but it seems that even this television series is having to make sacrifices. According to Mythomagic, Inc., Rick Riordan and Becky Riordan’s production company, the Percy Jackson series had to cut Argus, the fan-favorite giant character, because he would have blown their SFX budget.
Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson
Credit: Disney+
In Greek mythology, Argus (or Argos) is a giant set as a watchman by the Olympian goddess Hera. While various sources depict the giant differently, his most distinctive characteristic was his hundred eyes, which presumably make him a pretty good person to keep an eye on things (as it were). In most stories, Argus is eventually slain and his eyes are transformed into the patterns on the tails of peacocks.
In the Percy Jackson books, Argus is chief of security at Camp Half-Blood, where demi-gods shelter from sight and train in the arts of war under the god Dionysius. In this iteration, Argus is a “typical blond surfer dude,” whose entire body is covered with eyes.
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Mythomagic, Inc. posted a comment to Threads, explaining that, while Argus was intended to appear in season 1 of the show, budget constraints made it impossible. The post stated, “We worked very hard to include Argus (he was in the script during the beginning of 102) but then when we all realized the special effects budget would have been spent on all those eyes one reconsiders. So PJO fans just imagine him there with Percy and Grover trying to lighten the mood.”
Credit: Disney+
A later post joked that maybe they should have just used a Power Rangers character, saying, “Maybe we just needed to hire the Eye Guy from Power Rangers. Looking at this and wondering why we didn’t have this toy back in the day. I think we just had monster Lord Zedd.”
The Percy Jackson & the Olympians novels are composed of six books (the most recent of which was published this year), two sequel series, The Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo, and numerous companion guides. The franchise has spun off into a video game, and a Broadway musical.
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Two movie adaptations, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013), have been released, starring Logan Lerman as PJ, Brandon T. Jackson as the satyr Grover Underwood, and Alexandra Daddario as fellow demigod Annabeth Chase. A third movie was announced, but never produced.
Credit: Disney+
Now, the Walt Disney Comp
any is giving the franchise a try, this time with Rick Riordan as an executive producer. The new Percy Jackson series will star Walker Scobell as PJ, Leah Sava Jeffries as Chase, and Aryan Simhadri as Underwood. The Disney series will also be one of the final on-screen roles of the late Lance Reddick, who portrayed Zeus, Percy Jackson’s uncle.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians will begin streaming on Disney+ on December 20.
Inside the Magic reached out to Mythomagic, Inc. for comment, but has not heard back by the time of publishing.
Will Argus show up in a future Percy Jackson season? Will you watch the show? Let’s hear it in the comments below!
This post is originally appeared on Inside the Magic.
