Lin-Manuel Miranda Joins Disney+ ‘Percy Jackson’ Series as Hermes

Lin-Manuel Miranda is not throwing away his shot to play a god. The Grammy, Tony, and Emmy-winning “Hamilton” creator has been cast in the upcoming Disney+ series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” playing Hermes, the Greek god of messengers. The news, initially reported by Deadline, was confirmed by the official Disney+ Twitter account on Monday via a tweet that showed Miranda on set.

The show’s first season is based on Rick Riordan’s bestselling 2005 book “The Lightning Thief,” which tells the story of Percy Jackson, a troubled 12-year-old boy with ADHD and dyslexia who discovers he’s the demigod son of the Greek god Poseidon. As he begins training at Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary summer camp for other demigods, he ends up accused by the king of the Olympians, Zeus, of stealing a magical lightning bolt and is forced to travel to the Underworld in hopes of retrieving it.

Miranda will guest star in the first season of the show as Hermes. Hermes did not appear in the original “The Lightning Thief” novel, though he was mentioned and is the father of the major character Luke Castellan. The character appeared in three of the Percy Jackson books — “The Sea of Monsters,” “The Titan’s Curse,” and “The Last Olympian” — where he was portrayed as a charismatic trickster with a strained relationship with Luke.

Other guest stars in “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” include Megan Mullally, Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Jason Mantzoukas, Timm Sharp, Dior Goodjohn, Olivea Morton, Adam Copeland, Suzanne Cryer and Jessica Parker Kennedy. The show stars Walker Scobell as Percy, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri as his best friends Annabeth and Grover, and Charlie Bushnell as Luke.

Riordan developed the series with Jon Steinberg — the two wrote the pilot together, with Steinberg serving as showrunner with Dan Shotz. James Bobin will direct the pilot and executive produce with Riordan, his wife Rebecca Riordan, Steinberg, Shotz, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, Anders Engström, Jet Wilkinson and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, and D.J. Goldberg of The Gotham Group. The series is in production in Vancouver and is expected to premiere on Disney+ in 2024.

The original “Percy Jackson” book series is one of the most successful YA series of all time, selling over 180 million copies worldwide. Its success led to two sequel series, “The Heroes of Olympus” and “The Trials of Apollo,” published between 2010 and 2020. Two sequel novels written by Riordan, “The Sun and the Star” and “Percy Jackson and the Chalice of the Gods,” are scheduled to be published next year.

Miranda is repped by WME, Liebman Entertainment and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.

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