Wait, is that a Hans Zimmer-fied fantasy cover of a Styx song in this Percy Jackson Comic-Con teaser?

Jason Mantzoukas and Kristen Schaal are both on hand to give the teaser some comedy chops, but boy is that cover distracting.

By William Hughes  |  July 24, 2025 | 6:11pm
Image courtesy of Disney+
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Wait, is that a Hans Zimmer-fied fantasy cover of a Styx song in this Percy Jackson Comic-Con teaser?
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Let’s start by saying this: We mean no disrespect to Percy Jackson and any Olympians he might be associated with. The Disney+ show’s first season, which debuted back in late 2023, was breezy entertainment that held a lot of respect for Rick Riordan’s original books, and there’s no reason to think the second—which got advertised heavily at a San Diego Comic-Con Hall H panel today—will be any different. But we have to take, as a basic stance of principle, this: If your big teaser trailer is trying to milk some of its emotional power from a “badass,” “epic” cover of a song like Styx’s “Come Sail Away,” you may risk the danger of the whole thing coming off a little goofy.

That’s right: Walker Scobell’s Percy is set to sail The Sea Of Monsters, and there’s apparently no better way to underscore these nautical adventures than by playing a briefly-heard cover of the prog rock hit. The lyrical part of the song only plays for like two seconds, admittedly, but that was enough to immediately distract us from pretty much everything else the trailer is doing. (Showing off a cyclops, teasing some romantic entanglements with Leah Sava Jeffries’ Annabeth, and reminding us the series has folks like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jason Mantzoukas, and Kristen Schaal on speed-dial, basically.) It’s just really hard not to hear “Come sail away, come sail away” in any context, and not get immediately dropped into a progressive rock mindset, no matter how many pounding Hans Zimmer drumbeats you put behind it.

In addition to the teaser, Riordan also popped up at the panel (via a video message) to announce some new tidbits of casting for the show’s already-announced third season, revealing that Levi Chrisopulos and Olive Abercrombie will play Nico and Bianca di Angelo, the kids of Hades, in the yet-to-be-filmed season.  There was also plenty of talk between cast members Scobell, Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri, and more, focused on their latest adventure, in which Percy will have to recover the Golden Fleece to save Camp Half-Blood, possibly while listening to a really sweeping orchestral cover of “Mr. Roboto.” The second season of Percy Jackson And The Olympians debuts on December 10.

 
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