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Disney+'s live-action television adaptation of Rick Riordan's hit Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series had a lot of key casting to manage. Not only were there key child roles to be cast in the main trio of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, there was also the casting of some major Greek gods. Perhaps the lynchpin of which was Poseidon, god of the sea, and the titular character's absent father. 

At D23's Percy Jackson and the Olympians panel, Poseidon actor Toby Stephens surprised the audience on stage and chatted a bit about his journey to the show. In response to a moderator question about how he came to play Poseidon, Stephens shared, "Firstly I have to say that Dan Schotz and Jon Steinberg are great friends of mine. I worked with them for about four years on a show called Black Sails playing a psychotic pirate, and they thought it would be ironic for me to play Poseidon."

But really, what brought Stephens to the show was his relationship with the executive producers, Schotz and Steinberg. He said, "I desperately wanted to work with these guys." It also helped that he had a key family member who was a Percy Jackson fan.

"My son is a huge fan of the books," Stephens shared, "so he said 'I will disown you if you don't do it.'"  

Percy Jackson and the Olympians season one is currently streaming on Disney+.

With it's Olympian return to Disney+ for season 2, there's never been a better time to be a Percy Jackson fan.

If you want to take a peek behind the scenes, check out our interview with the main trio on whether or not they've read Rick Riordan's books or read about how time consuming and complicated it was to dye the Camp Half-Blood shirts orange.