Dior Goodjohn — Clarisse in Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney+ — talked with The Direct about the story and direction for her character should the show continue past Season 1.
With so much source material, a large fanbase, and extremely high viewership, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is in a great position for at least a Season 2, if not Seasons 3, 4, and 5 as well.
This means that even though only one season has been filmed, it was created with these future stories in mind and allowed the actors to dig deeper into what could come in developing their characters.
Dior Goodjohn on Clarisse & Silena's Possible Romantic Undertones
Warning: This section contains spoilers for The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan.
Speaking with The Direct, Percy Jackson and the Olympians' Dior Goodjohn (Clarisse) indicated that a popular theory about Clarisse and her best friend, Silena Beauregard, having at least undertones of romance is, in her interpretation of her character, true.
Achilles & Patroclus Paralleling Clarisse * Silena
The final of the original five Percy Jackson and the Olympians novels, The Last Olympian, includes a story paralleling the classic Greek myth of Achilles and Patroclus told in The Iliad.
In the myth, Achilles refuses to fight in the Trojan War out of spite. His best friend, Patroclus, cannot convince him to join, so to rally Achilles' troops (a step necessary for victory in the war), Patroclus dons his stronger friend's armor and pretends to be him. Patroclus dies in battle, spurring Achilles to join the war and take revenge for his best friend's life.
In many interpretations of the story, it is believed that the two best friends were lovers. Their closeness with each other, treatment of each other, and romantic-tragedy-esque story are considered by many to be a classic example of queer coding (a story communicating a character's queerness without saying so directly).
In The Last Olympian, Clarisse and Silena recreate this story almost exactly, with the former as Achilles and the latter as Patroclus. Clarisse holds a grudge and refuses (along with the entire Ares cabin) to fight in the war against Kronos. However, Kronos brings out a monster (a Drakon) that only a child of Ares can defeat.
Silena, Clarisse's best friend, tries to talk some sense into her. She does, with the whole Ares cabin joining the fight led by a warrior in Clarisse's armor. But it turns out it is not Clarisse — it is Silena pretending to be her friend to rally the cabin to fight.
The Drakon kills Silena, and Clarisse has a brutal, visceral reaction, leading her to kill the monster with her bare hands in revenge before parading around with its corpse tied to a chariot.
Like with Achilles and Patroclus, many readers have interpreted this as having romantic undertones — some saying that it is queer-coding on its own, others saying that the romance is part of the parallel of the original myth, and many believing it to be a mix of both.
Disney+ Clarisse on Popular Silena Theory
Dior Goodjohn seemingly revealed to The Direct that, at least in her view of the character, the popular fan theory about Clarisse and Silena is true.
When asked her thoughts on the Achilles and Patroclus parallels in Clarisse and Silena's story, Goodjohn said that "it is exactly what it is," and, regarding "everything the fandom has compiled and come up with, ... it's correct:"
"It is exactly what it is. And that's [all I want] to say. Like, everything that the fandom has compiled and come up with, every little piece of wording in the Reddit group chats and the Twitter group chats, it's correct. It's correct, and it's what I love to see and hear."
It is worth noting that neither The Direct nor Goodjohn stated the romantic element explicitly. However, the "wording in the Reddit group chats" and other fan discussions she refers to are more than likely ones analyzing and interpreting the queer-coded romance.
Plus, in early January, Goodjohn commented "caption" on a TikTok captioned "Clarisse is a masc lesbian argue with the wall," further showing the basis for this being what she referred to and establishing her belief in the interpretation.
Regardless, Goodjohn hopes to adapt the iconic scene featuring Silena's death and Clarisse's "Super Saiyan" reaction to it. It is the scene she is second-most excited to bring to life if the show continues past Season 1, only being beaten by a key conversation with Ares in The Sea of Monsters:
"My second up would definitely be, way way later down the line, but when I have my, like, moment about Silena dying and I slay the Drakon and go Super Saiyan. Like, that."
Dior Goodjohn's entire conversation with The Direct can be seen below:
Goodjohn's Dream Silena Castings
Silena Beauregard is certainly an important character in Clarisse's story, and Goodjohn already has ideas about who she would ideally want to play the character in Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Goodjohn told The Direct that her number one pick would be Ariana Greenblatt. Among several other roles, Greenblatt has notably played Young Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War, Young Ahsoka Tano in Ahsoka, and Sasha in Barbie.
Other ideas include Jenna Ortega (Wednesday and Scream) and Momona Tamada (The Baby-Sitters Club and the upcoming live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender).
Goodjohn revealed that all three of these dream castings have even been "talked about ... in the [Percy Jackson and the Olympians] group chat:"
The Direct: "In a perfect, absolutely perfect, theoretical world, who would be your dream cast for Silena?"
Dior Goodjohn: "Ariana Greenblatt ... But we've actually talked about this in the group chat. Ariana, Jenna Ortega, or our friend, actually, Momona Tamada, would be like our top three, if we could ever get anybody cast. For sure."
Silena's first appearance in the books comes inThe Sea of Monsters, meaning she could be cast for a potential Season 2. However, her role picks up more prominently in later books.
Goodjohn on Clarisse's First Book Romance, Chris Rodriguez
While Clarisse and Silena are popular and established in the fandom, Clarisse does, in canon, date the son of Hermes, Chris Rodriguez (Andrew Alvarez on Disney+) in the books.
The explained reason behind Clarisse and Silena's friendship is how they helped each other as they each began dating a male partner — Chris Rodriguez and Charles Beckendorf, respectively.
Goodjohn revealed that thinking about a future romantic story with Alvarez playing Chris is "a strange situation," as she feels like it "would be like dating [her] brother:"
"It's definitely a strange situation, just because ... I feel like me and Andrew are kind of the same person, so to think about it in that light is weird. It would be like dating my brother."
She complimented Alvarez, though, saying he "is amazing" and noting their "banter and ... rapport" with each other — all of which would help if this part of Clarisse and Chris' stories is explored:
"Andrew is amazing. And he's so funny and so fun. And we definitely have ... our little banter, and we have our rapport, and it's good."
Goodjohn expects that a discussion about the future romance story will come up soon "now that all the Chris and Clarisse edits are being made:"
"We haven't really talked about or discussed it, but I think it's definitely gonna be a topic of conversation now that all the Chris and Clarisse edits are being made."
The fan edits she refers to can be found all over social media, depicting various relationships with footage from the show set to music and often text overtop.
As Goodjohn told The Direct, they "will make or break relationships:"
"The power of the edit is insane. The edit will make or break relationships. The edit will bring people together. It's insane. It's crazy. The edit is the Oracle, in my own opinion."
Goodjohn's Hopes for Potential Percy Jackson Season 2 & Beyond
If Percy Jackson and the Olympians is renewed for a second season, fans can expect to see Goodjohn in a more prominent role than she had in Season 1.
Clarisse is arguably one of the main characters in The Sea of Monsters — the second of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson novels and likely what would be the inspiration for Season 2.
Goodjohn said that if she got the opportunity to adapt the more Clarisse-focused Sea of Monsters, "it would be a dream come true:"
"I would be so ecstatic. ... It would be a dream come true to be able to, like, put all of that source material and bring it to life."
Goodjohn explained that she found the well of source material about Clarisse's future in the other four Percy Jackson books "really helpful" in her character portrayal. She said that knowing what happens next in Clarisse's story "gives [her] more insight into the reasoning behind her actions now:"
" It's really, really helpful, honestly, knowing all of that. Like, it just gives me more insight into the reasoning behind her actions now, I think. I know some people would say the opposite, because a lot of people are really about the idea of not knowing what's gonna happen next gives them a better performance. But in some cases, it depends."
However, Goodjohn finds it "just perfect" to be able to "make certain decisions that will really foreshadow" where Clarisse's story will go as early as in the character's first appearance:
"But for me, in some cases, knowing what's going to happen in the future, I can make certain decisions that will really foreshadow it, and so it's just perfect. It's perfect, because everything ... that may end up happening later is, like, just amazing. And it just makes me so happy to look forward to, and it's also just great information to know, so it's perfect."
Percy Jackson and the Olympians has dropped plenty of seeds for events from future books in its story, dialogue, and design — not to mention the foreshadowing Goodjohn discussed as part of her performance.
If the series does continue, it will be exciting for both lifelong and brand-new fans of the franchise to watch all the foreshadowing pay off as the multi-book (and, therefore, theoretically, multi-season) story progresses.
The season finale of Percy Jackson and the Olympians hits Disney+ on Tuesday, January 30 at 9 p.m. ET.
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