Dior Goodjohn and Daniel Diemer stopped by Toronto last week to talk about Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2, and they had a lot to say about how they brought real emotions to screen as Clarisse and Tyson.
While Goodjohn returns as Clarisse La Rue, the tough and bold daughter of Ares, who was often at odds with Percy and his friends, Diemer joined the cast as Tyson, a young Cyclops, and Percy’s brother, who takes a protective role beside his brother.
Tyson stands out as a quiet and strong young man, and while he comes across as simple, he’s quite smart, and clever. His growth across the season is one of the most interesting character arcs, right beside Clarisse’s arc finding her inner strength and taking the chance to depend on her friends for once.
“We wanted to make sure that the emotional intelligence was something that was super clear,” Diemer said, “[with Tyson] being able to read a room. Even if his vocabulary is still a little bit more immature, with him being such a young Cyclops, and still finding his place in the world.”
“To be able to connect with the audience in ways that span both the power that he gets, and the protective nature that he gets from having experienced [hardship on the street], and not wanting anybody else to experience that pain is just such a beautiful thing”.
As the demi-gods quest to find the legendary Golden Fleece in the Sea of Monsters, and their lost friend, Grover, they have to face serious challenges, while Clarisse decides where she stands. For Goodjohn, she found a lot to relate to in the character.
As she put it, Clarisse this season gave her the opportunity to “alchemize” negative things from her life, that made her feel like she was “emotionally naked” but in the most positive space alongside her co-stars.
“The illusion that she has of her father is immediately dismantled as soon as she gets on that ship, completely,” she said. “Everything that she thought about him and about the way he does things and how, ‘if I can just be like him, I will be doing everything right in life,’ gets dismantled in two seconds and then it forces her to change the entire way that she thinks; her value system is completely different.”
“Yes, it is a [young adult] show, but you’re touching really real, really serious topics that people deal with their entire lives. So for kids to be able to see themselves in these characters, actually, and not just the pretty parts, and understand that it’s going to be okay. If I had that when I was young–I’m so grateful for where I am right now–but my mindset about things would be so different”.
In the end Tyson embodies on of the biggest themes of the season, self-acceptance, all while one of the biggest pay-offs, as he saves Percy and finally meets his father, Poseidon.
“He’s finally starting to find comfortability with the darkness, of what he’s experienced, and being a monster, and being able to love himself for that,” Diemer said.
“I think that, for me, is weirdly more emotional than the connection with his father because it’s more of this acceptance of himself. Like, ‘hey, being a monster is not a bad thing and it can be really like your strength.’ That’s beautiful. It’s not something that you need to be so careful of all the time and have to tiptoe around everybody.”
Season three of the series has already been announced for late 2026, and pre-production started at the end of 2025.
The whole second season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is available to binge now on Disney+. Watch the full interview with Dior Goodjohn and Daniel Diemer at the top of the story.
Images courtesy of Disney.
