Grover Underwood, the satyr and titular demigod Percy Jackson’s (played by Walker Scobell) best friend, is on a quest to find the Greek god of the wild Pan, in Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2. Based on the second book in Rick Riordan’s fantasy series titled, The Sea of Monsters, the sophomore outing in Disney’s adaptation finds Grover imprisoned by the Odyssean monster Polyphemus, wearing a wedding dress to fool the cyclops. It is a fan favourite book moment.
“It was incredible,” says Aryan Simhadri talking over a video call from Los Angeles. “Everywhere I go, at every fan event, people are constantly asking me about the wedding dress. And I legally am not allowed to say!” We saw a little bit of it in the premiere and there is more to come.
Eight fittings
“Getting to put it together was a beautiful process,” says Aryan. “It took eight fittings. It started off as a bunch of different layers that were sewn together, and then we ruined it. We dragged it through the mud. My blood is literally on the dress. I had a nosebleed on set, and I bled onto the dress, and they kept it in because it fit. Bringing such an iconic book moment to life was awesome. It is what I was looking forward to since I signed on for the show.”
“Grover realising he has to find Pan himself is a big part of Season 2,” he says. “Grover can’t talk about it with Percy and Annabeth. I’m sure he could, but they wouldn’t necessarily understand how important it is for him.”
Walker Scobell and Aryan Simhadri in a still from ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Season 2
| Photo Credit:
Disney
Breaking it down
To prepare for something like that, Aryan says, “You have to go over it a ton of times. It’s all we did in prep. We sat down and talked about the script. Some of the things that came up for analysis when we broke it down were: what is it like for Grover to get closer to Pan but not actually find him? What does the quest for Pan mean? What is Pan? I’m so lucky to have our incredible acting coach, Andrew McElroy. It was a good, intense process.”
Physically, the most challenging scene for Aryan was when he is being dragged across the sand. “That’s not always fun. It was fun for me, but when you keep finding sand in your pants for the next few weeks, that’s when it doesn’t feel so good , but in the moment, it was great.”
Pretty gnarly
For the 19-year-old actor, the most challenging scene mentally was when Grover sees Polyphemus. “Seeing the bodies and skeletons of his family or relatives that have failed there was pretty gnarly, and something that Grover doesn’t have time to digest. It just hits him in the moment and he doesn’t know what to do with it.”
Grover’s reed pipe moment was huge for Aryan. “It was something that I talked to a lot of the writers about. I talked to Daphne Olive, who is part of the incredible writers’ team, and she gave me this idea that maybe it comes to him after he gets a searcher’s license, which totally made sense to me. We wrote it into the script that Grover finds the pipe at a shrine to Pan on the skeleton of a satyr who had passed.”
Final piece
It is a beautiful passing-of-the-torch moment for Grover, says Aryan. “He gets this weapon, the final piece of his kit. And once he gets it, he’s complete. That’s Grover’s character coming full circle. It was a huge moment for me. There is a little bit of Pan pipe-playing in Season 2; there’s a lot more in Season 3 and I’m getting pretty good at it, not to brag.”
Craft service, which helps with snack stations stocked with apples, croissants and energy bars to help the cast get through the day, also had a hand in an impromptu concert one evening, says Aryan.
Bob Dylan time
“Chris, one of the guys at Crafty’s set up a karaoke stand every Friday night, and we could come over and request songs. I wrapped early that day, and Charlie (Bushnell, who plays Luke, the son of Hermes) also happened to be there. So Charlie and I sang Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe”. It’s one of my fondest memories.”
Talking of his go-to snack on set, Aryan says, “It’s hard to find a good snack, because you don’t want to eat something that’s going to mess up your ability to talk. I like grapes. Oh and banana bread! It is the perfect snack on set. Banana bread with something hot is a perfect combination.”
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 streams on JioHotstar with weekly episode drops till January 21, 2026
Published – December 16, 2025 04:10 pm IST
