Percy Jackson Stars Head to Lucca Comics Ahead of Season 3

Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri will appear at Italy's Lucca Comics and Games Festival in late October to unveil unseen footage ahead of the Nov. 20 release of Season 3 of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians." The festival, held inside the 16th-century walls of the Tuscan town, draws more than 200,000 fans each year and ranks as the biggest pop culture festival in Europe.

The "Percy Jackson" stop, backed by Disney, places Lucca squarely on a major studio promotional tour. Giovanni Cova, head of Milan-based entertainment marketing company QMI, which leads programming of Lucca's film and TV strand, makes the claim plainly: Lucca has become "an essential international stage to unveil major series released in the autumn season."

That is a strong claim. But the track record Cova cites is concrete. In recent years, he said, the festival has served as "a — if not 'the' — primary showcase" for "Stranger Things," "Squid Game," "Wednesday" and "The Lord of the Rings."

What does Lucca offer that traditional festivals don't?

Cova's answer cuts to the festival's structural difference. At Lucca, he said, "there is no filter between the content, the talent and the audience." Traditional festivals present content to industry professionals and the press, who then act as intermediaries. Lucca skips that layer entirely.

"Film criticism is not part of the festival's DNA," Cova said. "For Lucca, presenting content simply means bringing it directly to the fans."

He acknowledged the trade-off without apology: because the festival has no critical function, "we don't have to worry about generating 'bad press,' as that falls outside our scope and purpose." Studios get a direct line to the audience; critics get no seat at the table. Both halves of that arrangement are worth noting.

The setting does work that red carpets cannot. Cova points to the images from past launches — the ancient Piazza San Michele packed with people, casts meeting audiences face to face — which, he said, "travel around the world because they are so distinctive. Very different from the typical red-carpet scene." The chance for talent to "get up close and personal with their actual fans," in his words, is "absolutely priceless."

Who else is coming this year?

Beyond "Percy Jackson," Cova listed the festival's other major bookings:

• Frank Miller, returning for what Cova believes is his fourth or fifth visit. "Frank truly embodies the values of Lucca and the types of genre we love," Cova said.
• Hirokazu Kore-eda, who attended Cannes this year for "Sheep in the Box" and comes to Lucca for another project, "Look Back."
• Joe Manganiello, whom Cova called a "huge fan of Lucca" spanning cinema, video games and tabletop games.

Immersive installations will carry as much weight as the guests. The festival will host a "Harry Potter" experience, a K-pop-themed experience from Netflix, a Crunchyroll pavilion hosting numerous premieres, plus activations for "Percy Jackson" from Disney and "Dexter" for Paramount+. "These immersive, interactive and event-driven experiences are just as significant as the presence of talent," Cova said.

Cova credited the local offices of major studios and streaming services for having "effectively communicated the importance of Lucca to the decision-makers back in Los Angeles."

The question hanging over the story is one Cova himself raises: the role of traditional festivals as promotional vehicles is being questioned industry-wide. What does Lucca's rise change? On his account, it shows studios can reach 200,000 fans directly, with no critics in between — and that model, festival by festival, is gaining ground.