SPOILERS are ahead for Percy Jackson and the Olympians Episode 6, titled “We Take A Zebra To Vegas,” now streaming with a Disney+ subscription and/or Hulu subscription.
Percy Jackson’s epic quest across the United States to clear his name with the gods and save his mom continued this week with another episode of the hit streaming series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Episode 6 featured the trio venturing to a Las Vegas casino to gain access to Hermes' magical taxi successfully! One of my favorite scenes during “We Take A Zebra To Vegas” has to be the taxi scene, and during CinemaBlend’s chat with the show’s cinematographer, he detailed how the sequence was actually shot.
I don’t know about you, but I always wonder how they film those scenes where characters who don’t have a drivers’ license have to get behind the wheel. And during my conversation with Pierre Gill regarding his work on the series, he shared how the lead of the Percy Jackson cast accomplished that scene. In Gill’s words:
No, he was not able to drive. He was like, at that point, maybe 13, I don't remember. So, it was an amazing rig with a taxi cab cut in the front with an extra piece, like a pilot driving the cab in front of them with multiple cameras. I mean, if you see that rig, it's really for the big movies, it's really fun. So they were not driving, the driver in front was driving. And also the street was very special because that is something that exists in many movies where you have a car and on top of the car, the driver is there. So they put a cage and he has a wheel that is linked to the rest of the car. So he's driving a car, but we shot into a basement, so it was too low to do that. So they built a car with an extension in front.
Whoa, Walker Scobell Actually Spoke Underwater In Percy Jackson And Here’s How He Did It
While part of me thought that maybe Walker Scobell got to try his hand at driving for the sequence, I’d be wrong. And a lot of work went into the scene being shot with another driver actually behind the wheel. As Pierre Gill shared, the taxi actually had another piece attached to the front where the actual driver moved the Percy Jackson trio. It’s so interesting to hear from the cinematographer what actually went on behind the scenes during the scene, because when I was watching it, I was truly just caught up in the funny moment of Percy trying to drive an adult taxi at 13.
While Season 2 of Percy Jackson has yet to be confirmed, I have a feeling the series has a bright future. I just imagine years from now when we’ve watched the cast grow older and be old enough to drive cars on their own, we’ll go back to this scene with a special fondness. They are just babies right now, but treasure it, because after Episode 6, there’s just two more episodes of Season 1!!
As you enjoy this week’s episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, you can also check out what we learned previously about how Lin-Manuel Miranda was cast as Hermes in the series and get excited for the next episode, “We Find Out The Truth, Sort Of,” set to be released on Tuesday, January 23 at 6 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. ET.
