Nearly everyone involved in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief has moved on and grown up a bit-- Logan Lerman warring in last fall's The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Brandon T. Jackson to TV's Beverly Hills Cop TV series and Jake Abel to The Host just last weekend. But the gang's all back, with Nathan Fillion inexplicably added to the mix, for Percy Jackson and the Sea Monsters, whose first trailer just debuted at MTV.
When I interviewed Abel about The Host last week it was interesting hearing him admit that the Percy Jackson series is pretty much exclusively for kids at this point, which might be tough for a twenty-something actor making his way in the world but also provides a pretty steady paycheck. And as evidenced by all the work these actors have gotten since Lightning Thief, it's definitely not hurting that they're most recognizable to elementary schoolers. You'd think the original Percy Jackson film might not merit a sequel, making just $88 million in the United States, but with a $226 million worldwide total it's enough to move forward even without Harry Potter or Hunger Games-sized grosses.
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, with newly added director Thor Freudenthal and cast additions that include Stanley Tucci as Dinoysus and the aforementioned Nathan Fillion, comes to theaters on August 16 this year.
