SPOILERS are ahead for Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 finale “The Fleece Works Its Magic Too Well”, new on streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
It’s all led to this. The final episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 just dropped amid the 2026 TV schedule, and there’s a lot to talk about. Anyone who's a fan of the books like me likely noticed during this latest installment that there’s one big development related to the backstory of one of the season's new characters, Thalia Grace. Luckily, I had the chance to talk to the actress who plays Thalia, Tamara Smart, about filming THAT scene. So let’s get into it.
Tamara Smart Discusses That Big Scene With Zeus In The Percy Jackson Finale
If you haven't already guessed, I've been referring to the reveal regarding why Thalia was really trapped in a pine tree by her father, Zeus, on Half-Blood Hill. Earlier in the season, it was explained (as it is in the books) that the demigod saved her friends from a horde of Furies and died in the process. But Zeus decided to prevent his daughter’s soul from going to Hades by turning her into a pine tree.
However, in another big change from the source material, it was revealed that Zeus was the one who took down the Furies and turned Thalia into a tree. The almighty god performed that act after Thalia denounced herself as his daughter and refused to stay at Camp Half Blood. When Smart spoke to CinemaBlend about this major change, she recalled just how much thought went into it:
We talked about the scene a lot. I talked about a lot with the producers. Obviously Rick made the change, which is kind of shocking, because it's awesome, you know? And then we talked about it a lot when we kind of got on to set 'cause it's such, like I said, it's such a pivotal scene for the show compared to the books and also pivotal within this character dynamic.
Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan is a producer on the series, and he told me in a prior interview that seeing Tamara Smart’s version of Thalia served as “a revelation” for him. As Smart shared, Riordan “obviously” signed off on the big shift from Sea of Monsters. She also said the following:
Thalia obviously already kind of hates the Gods, hates Zeus, but this kind of changes everything and it changes the trajectory of why Percy comes to camp and kind of almost every character's development in the show and going on to shoot it. I think we all had a lot of opinions on what the energy was gonna be like. Me and Courtney have no past experience working with each other. And so it was kind of getting onto this same page when it came to our characters dynamic.
Tamara Smart alludes to a good point in that in many ways, the reveals hinges on the chemistry she has with new Zeus actor Courtney B. Vance. All in all, this was a bold swing for the creative team to take this season, and it could be received by die-hard fans in a myriad of ways. What can be said, though, is that the writers and producers really committed to adding an element of surprise to this season, which is based on the second Jackson book, Sea of Monsters.
How Lance Reddick's Death Factored Into This Major Zeus Scene
During my interview with Smart, the actress also talked more about getting to play opposite Vance, who replaced Lance Reddick in the role of Zeus after the latter's death in 2023. Smart was actually cast as Thalia after Reddick’s wife suggested her for the role. Smart previously played the daughters of Reddick’s character in Netflix’s Resident Evil series. As for working out her big finale scene with Vance, here's what Smart said:
I was all over the place reading it. And, at that point we hadn't cast a Zeus, so I was kind of imagining it with this blank face that I wasn't really sure who was gonna be doing it with. That was kind of the first difficulty in reading that scene because I had originally kind of imagined doing it with Lance. And so that was one of the things I was like, ‘Okay, they're casting now, so we'll figure it out.’ And then, Courtney got cast and I knew that they had known of each other in the industry, which was lovely because it's so nice for there to be a connection there.
Now that Thalia Grace is officially in the fold, there’s a lot to look forward to from Percy Jackson Season 3, which is expected to start streaming on Disney+ later this year. Will Thalia be Percy’s friend or worst enemy? Time will tell.
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