Another ‘Percy Jackson’ Character Was Recast in Season 2

Percy Jackson has recast another character.

Season 2 of the Disney+ fantasy series brought in Kevin Chacon as the demigod Chris Rodriguez, replacing Andrew Alvarez.

The second season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is based on Rick Riordan’s Sea of Monsters, where Chris is a pivotal character at the beginning of the story. While Alvarez portrayed the character during the first season, the producers wanted to consider who should more seriously take on the role for Season 2.

“Chris’ role was expanding, but also there was nothing in Season 1 — I think it was maybe mentioned in a credit, but nobody outright said ‘that’s Chris Rodriguez’ in the show,” executive producer Craig Silverstein explained to Entertainment Weekly. “And we’re also able to take the character that Andrew played and carry that character forward as well. So I look at it as not a recasting, because the character that Andrew played that you met in Season 1 continues, and Chris Rodriguez was always there as Kevin.”

“But when we were looking at what are we going to do in Season 2 where the character comes a little more into the forefront, that’s the casting that made sense at the time for that part,” Riordan added. “So much of it is who’s the best for the part, who’s available for the part, what makes sense with the timing? So this is really the first time that you see Chris Rodriguez as a full character, so it wasn’t really so much of a recasting thing. It was just finding the way to make that part work with the right person who was available.”

While Alvarez is not Chris, the creative team shared that he is still part of the cast in a different, unnamed role at Camp Half-Blood. Chacon’s character, meanwhile, is considered to have always been hanging around in the background.

“I don’t remember what we called him, but yes, he’s still in the show,” co-creator Jonathan E. Steinberg said of Alvarez. “He was only really named Chris in the credits [in Season 1], but it was almost an Easter egg for the fans. It wasn’t something that we had really sort of made substantive. We wanted just to do a slight course-correct there while still keeping as much continuity from the first season as we could.”

This is the latest recasting to come out of Percy Jackson. Ahead of Season 2, which premiered in December, the series found its new Zeus with Tony and Emmy winner Courtney B. Vance. The news came over a year after the death of Lance Reddick, who portrayed the Greek God in Season 1.