Walker Scobell On the Ryan Reynolds-Like Delivery of Percy’s Line To Kronos in ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Season 2 Episode 7: “It’s Just Muscle Memory”

Walker Scobell may be a few years removed from working with Ryan Reynolds, but that certainly doesn’t mean he’s lost his grasp on the elder actor’s idiosyncrasies.

In the latest episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2, Scobell — who first broke onto the scene playing a younger version of Reynolds’ character in The Adam Project — taps back into the delivery attributed to the Deadpool actor. As the disembodied voice of Kronos attempts to bring Percy to the dark side, reciting the great prophecy about the demigod child of one of the “big three” — a.k.a. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades — Percy, who is very clearly already fed up, cuts Kronos’ monologue short, ripping the Golden Fleece from his casket and sarcastically telling the titan, “Okay, I decided.” It’s not only very Percy, it’s very Ryan Reynolds.

“I think that was one of the easiest scenes for me to shoot, because I did definitely feel that on the day. It was just kind of there. It’s always there for me,” Scobell told DECIDER of finding his Reynold-esque conveyance again for the Episode 7 scene. “Even though I would say Percy’s, maybe, the closest person that I’ve played to me, I think it’s almost easier to just tap into that [Reynolds-like delivery] than it is to tap into Percy, because it’s just muscle memory.”

For those who don’t know, while Scobell and Reynolds were filming the 2022 Netflix film, a video of the younger actor went viral as he recited from memory one of Deadpool’s monologues from Deadpool 2. The expletive-laced clip saw Scobell accurately mimicking Reynolds’ vocal inflections and mannerisms, and quickly blew up as fans noticed the similarities.

Later, as the cast and crew promoted the film — which also starred Jennifer Garner, Zoe Saldaña, and Mark Ruffalo — Reynolds and the film’s director, Shawn Levy, confirmed that it was Scobell’s self-taped audition video where he did his best impression of the actor that landed him the role. Now, more than five years and a few big roles later, it seems that Reynolds’ quirks still remain and even assist Scobell in bringing out the most authentic version of his latest character.

“I think just those quick little witty things that make up Ryan’s humor also make up Percy’s humor in a lot of ways,” Scobell said of finding the tone of the half-blood son of Poseidon. Guess you can take the boy out of the Ryan Reynolds project, but you can’t take the Ryan Reynolds influence out of the boy’s acting style!

With one episode left in the second season of Rick Riordan‘s Disney+ adaptation and Percy having been under more stress than ever this season, we can only hope that we get more of these light-hearted moments before the season comes to a close.

The first seven episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 are now streaming. The Season 2 finale drops on Wednesday, January 20.

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