Lin-Manuel Miranda has signed on for a crucial guest-starring role in the upcoming series Percy Jackson and the Olympians from Disney+. Miranda, himself a fan of the book series and his young son, will play the Greek God Hermes. It seems as though he’ll be showing up much sooner in the adaptation because, in the books, Hermes didn’t make an appearance until the second installment, The Sea of Monsters.
As a refresher, the series is about a 12-year-old demigod named Percy Jackson (Walter Scobell), who winds up at Camp Half-Blood, a place for all the other children of the gods to train and be safe from monsters. Percy ends up going on a quest alongside Grover (Aryan Simhadri), a satyr, and Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), a daughter of Athena, to recover Zeus’ lightning bolt. Along the way, they meet several different gods and monsters from Greek mythology.
Here’s a character description of Hermes courtesy of Deadline:
“The messenger god who looks out for travelers and thieves, and is a bit of a trickster himself. He is charismatic & boisterous, the life of the party. Unfortunately, his charm does not do much to heal his strained relationship with his son, Luke (Charlie Bushnell). He’s hesitant to help Percy and his friends on their quest as sometimes getting involved is more trouble than it’s worth.”
Miranda will be joining a list of increasingly growing guest stars. Some of his fellow gods will be Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus, aka Mr. D. He was the god of fertility, wine, and pleasure, but in the present, he serves as Camp Half-Blood’s director. Adam Copelan will play Ares, the god of war. In the books, besides dropping by to lend a not-so-helpful hand, he’s also the father of fellow camper Clarisse La Rue (Dior Goodjohn).
Other previously announced guest stars include Megan Mullally as Alecto/Ms. Dodds, Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson, Glynn Turman as Chiron/Mr. Brunner, Timm Sharp as Gabe Ugliano, Olivea Morton as Nancy Bobofit, Suzanne Cryer as Echidna, and Jessica Parker Kennedy as Medusa. Strangely enough, the actors playing Zeus and Posideon have yet to be listed, even though they play a big role in the series and the first book in particular.
Where'd You'd Recognize Miranda From
Miranda is a Grammy, Emmy, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize-winning actor, songwriter, director, and procedure. He’s best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musical Hamilton. Followed closely by In the Heights, he played the lead role on stage and cameoed in the movie. His additional Broadway credits include Freestyle Love Supreme, Bring It On: The Musical, and West Side Story when it was revived in 2009.
Percy Jackson isn’t the first time Miranda has worked on a Disney project. Besides acting in Mary Poppins Returns as Jack, a lamplighter who was an apprentice of Bert (Dick Van Dyke), his two Oscar nominations have been for his work for Disney. Those Best Original Song nominations were “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana and “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto.
His other film and tv credits include tick, tick… BOOM!, Vivo, His Dark Materials, Fosse/Verdon, We The People, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He also hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live but didn’t pull double duty as the musical guest, like some of the previous hosts in the show’s past have done in the past.