Who plays Luke in the Percy Jackson movie and TV show?

Is it possible that the franchise is so underrated and so beloved? When it comes to literature for children and middle grade readers, the answer is a clear “yes.” Aside from some huge pop cultural flashpoints, modern children’s film seems to be full of blockbuster titles that win millions of young fans but barely register on the radar of adults (and, more importantly, critics). Rick Riordan’s “Camp Half-Blood Chronicles” seems to be one of those. The books, which center around the impudent son of Poseidon, Percy Jackson, and the friends and rivals he meets at a demigod camp, have more than 180 million copies in print, According to Disney. However, if you’re over 35, you probably haven’t heard of it — until about a year ago.

In December 2023, Disney+ launched the first season of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” a controversial adaptation of Riordan’s book “The Lightning Thief” that was designed to lay the groundwork for additional seasons based on the author’s other novel, “Percy Jackson.” Novels. It was a hit too. In January 2024, Delivery time It was reported that the show’s premiere has already garnered more than 26 million views in its first three weeks of broadcast.

“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” aims to right some of the wrongs of an earlier, inconsistent attempt to adapt the saga, which faltered after just two films in 2013. In those films, “The Perks of Being A Wallflower” actor Logan Lerman played Percy, while Future “The White Lotus” star Alexandra Daddario plays Athena’s daughter Annabeth, and “Tropic Thunder” actor Brandon T. Jackson portrays the satyr. Grover and “Supernatural” alum Jake Appel played Hermes’ son Luke. In the Disney+ version, Walker Scobell (“The Adam Project”) plays Percy, while Leah Jeffries (“Empire”) plays Annabeth, Aryan Simhadri (“Adventure Time: Distant Lands”) plays Grover, and Charlie Bushnell (“Diary of a Man “). future president) is Luke.

Luke Castellan is a character worth paying attention to, as he ends up playing an important and unexpected role after the first book in Riordan’s “Camp Half-Blood Chronicles.” In “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” the film directed by “Harry Potter” veteran Chris Columbus, Luke starts out as a friendly head counselor offering guidance to young children, but is eventually revealed to be the titular thief who stole… Thunderbolt of Zeus. The second (and final) film in the franchise sees Percy and his companions confront Luke when he attempts to raise Kronos to eliminate the gods of Mount Olympus.

The same is true of Riordan’s books, where Luke eventually becomes a character that some see as a major antagonist while others see as more of an anti-hero. Luke is the son of Hermes, the Greek messenger god who represents travelers and thieves alike. His mother was Mai Castellan, a human woman with the gift of foresight who seemed to lose her powers when she failed to possess the spirit of the famous Oracle of Delphi. All of this plays into Luke’s actions in the novels, but when we meet him in the Disney+ show, he appears to have found a home at Camp Half-Blood alongside Zeus’s daughter Thalia (Tamara Smart) and the rest of the demigod gang.

Jake Appel played the hero-turned-antagonist in both “Percy Jackson” movies, but it wasn’t his breakout role. Abel actually started acting as a teenager, appearing in the Disney Channel original movie “Go Figure” (about hockey and figure skating) before taking on guest roles in a slew of shows including “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Suite Life of “. “Zack & Cody” and two different titles of “CSI” and “ER”. He also appeared in the critically acclaimed literary adaptations “The Lovely Bones” and “I Am Number Four,” only for his career to kick into high gear when he portrayed Adam, the half-brother of Sam and Dean Winchester, in The much-loved fourth and fifth seasons of “Supernatural.”

Abel would later return to “Supernatural” as the archangel Michael, but in the meantime, he’s starred in both the “Percy Jackson” films as well as an adaptation of “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer’s sci-fi romance book “The Host.” Most recently, Appel has had recurring roles on the podcast adaptation “Dirty John,” and on Jared Padalecki’s “Walker” on The CW. He also starred in the Katee Sackhoff-directed Netflix series “Another Life,” and has appeared in In the future classic film. (And a worldwide favorite) James Wan’s horror film “Malignant.”

The first season of the Disney+ series “Percy Jackson” only touched on Luke’s true motivations in its finale, and the character is expected to have a big role in the upcoming second season of the show. In this version of the story, Hermes’ son is played by Charlie Bushnell, who (like most of the show’s cast members) doesn’t have many credits in his filmography yet. Biography on IMDb Bushnell’s own writing when he was in ninth grade reveals that he began making home movies at age 10, but was particularly inspired to pursue acting after watching the 2017 film Stranger Things.

After appearing in two short films, Bushnell landed a major supporting role in “Diary of a Future President,” a Disney+ series produced by Gina Rodriguez about a young girl (Tess Romero) who dreams of one day becoming President of the United States. Rodriguez plays an older version of the novel’s heroine, Elena, who she actually is He does She becomes president, while Bushnell plays her older brother Bobby, who realizes he is gay after developing feelings for a male friend in the first season. The show was canceled after just two seasons, before, frustratingly, It’s also being pulled from Disney+ in one of a number of recent purges in the streaming era One of the original projects, so it is not currently (legally) available for streaming in the United States

Aside from “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”, Bushnell also actively appears in Peacock’s show “In the Know”. He appears in six episodes of the stop-motion adult comedy, which comes from the always hilarious Zach Woods, as well as “King of the Hill” co-creator Mike Judge and Brandon Gardner, a stand-up comedian with UCB and Dropout credits. He will play Luke again in the second season of “Percy Jackson.” He told mixed Asian media His performance is inspired by superheroes like Anakin Skywalker and the “Black Panther” villain Killmonger.

This section contains Spoilers Percy Jackson books.

In the first season of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”, Luke helped Percy several times, even giving him a pair of winged shoes like the ones Hermes was known to wear. But the shoe turned out to be cursed because Luke had ulterior motives. He wanted to foil Percy’s plans to play hero because he stole Zeus’ lightning bolt in an attempt to start a civil war of sorts between the gods of Mount Olympus.

The first season ends with Luke facing off against Percy and then disappearing, clearly on the run from the youth. In the original books, Luke’s story continues as it is revealed why he stands against the gods. You see, Luke never recovered from his mother’s decline, which he blamed on Hermes, and from a failed Hercules-like endeavor that left him a dragon. He then joins forces with Cronos, becoming a sort of tormenting servant to the powerful Titan (who has been pulling the strings behind the scenes throughout the novels).

As the books unfold, Luke is increasingly drawn into Kronos’ control, and it becomes clear in hindsight that he regrets his actions and wants the entire endeavor to be finished. Instead, he ended up becoming possessed by Cronos and, in a moment of lucidity, sacrificed himself to save the world. The Heroes of Olympus stories are all about heroes and monsters, but they’re also about the way each of us has the potential to be a hero or a monster. At the last minute, Luke chose to be a hero, making him one of the most important and sympathetic characters in the entire series.

Season 1 of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is now available on Disney+, with Season 2 scheduled to premiere in 2025.