Who is Mr. Brunner in ‘Percy Jackson?’ Explained

Friends, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is back, now as a prestige digital series, as all things must eventually be. Six books, two live-action adaptations, and a Broadway musical later, there’s a lot about the Percy Jackson universe to take in. Take Mr. Brunner, for example.

Mr. Brunner is a staple of the long-running YA series. Folks with a passing interest in the new series’ trailer will already be aware that he’s a man who looks sharp in a suit, and that he brings some serious responsible adult energy to the proceedings. But what is Mr. Brunner’s whole deal?

Who is Mr. Brunner in Percy Jackson? From legend to Disney Plus

His whole deal, it turns out, is that he’s a centaur – a pretty great centaur, too. In the Camp Halfblood Chronicles and in the Greek mythology from which they take their inspiration, Chiron is sort of the go-to guy for training fresh-faced heroes. 

In the original stories, Chiron was the son of the Kronos, the baby-eating president of Titans, basically. Because this is Greek mythology and everything is at least a little bit uncomfortable, he gets the horsier half of his body thanks to the fact that his dad was a pretty pony when Chiron was conceived. Mythology is full of stuff like this. They didn’t have a lot of outlets for this kind of thing in ancient Athens.

While the Chiron of legend died after an embarrassing whoopsie with an arrow dipped in Hydra blood during an unforeseen centaur stampede, in the Camp Halfblood Chronicles, he is gifted with immortality by Zeus, presumably back before he turned into Russell Crowe. Unlike basically every other mentor figure in post-Campbell storytelling, he doesn’t even die at the end of the second act – He lives on, well past the average lifespan of most men and horses, on the condition that he keeps cranking out new heroes like Achilles, Jason, and Hercules. 

In the 21st century, Chiron finds a new, unlikely pupil: Percy Jackson, a desperately under-qualified demigod of uncertain parentage who might – just might – be the “prophesied chosen one” that most YA novels are built upon. Disguising himself in an enchanted wheelchair and calling himself Mr. Brunner, Chiron keeps a weather eye on young Percy, even providing secret weapons that are somehow exactly as mighty as both a pen and a sword in the blossoming young hero’s hour of need.

The Disney Plus iteration of Percy Jackson sees Chiron/Mr. Brunner played by Glynn Turman, AKA Mayor Clarence Royce from the third season of The Wire, or Dr. Redman from Freddy’s Nightmares, if you’re nasty. The first movie in 2010’s false-start film series saw Pierce Brosnan in the role, while the little-remembered second entry passed the part on to Ted Lasso’s Anthony Head.