Chiron in Percy Jackson: Who He Is and Who Plays Him

Chiron is a centaur at Camp Half-Blood, the camp where Percy learns what he is. In Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), directed by Chris Columbus, he first appears as Mr. Brunner, the teacher on Percy's school trip to a museum. That is why the credits read Mr. Brunner / Chiron for that film and plain Chiron for the sequel.

So, what was Chiron in Percy Jackson, in one line? He is the centaur hiding behind Percy's teacher, and the reveal that Mr. Brunner is Chiron comes when Percy reaches the camp.

Two actors play him across the two films. Pierce Brosnan is credited as Mr. Brunner / Chiron in The Lightning Thief, billed fifth. Anthony Stewart Head takes over as Chiron in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013), directed by Thor Freudenthal, billed tenth. If you want the full list of who appears across the series, the Percy Jackson cast page has it.

Chiron's first connection is with Percy, whom he meets as a teacher before meeting him as a camper. In The Lightning Thief, the person who teaches Percy on the school trip is the same person who turns out to be a centaur at camp. If you want the boy at the center of it all, see Percy Jackson.

Grover is the other early link. He and Mr. Brunner fight the Fury together, so the satyr and the centaur are already working as a team before Percy knows what either of them is. For more on that side of the story, see Grover Underwood.

In Sea of Monsters the circle widens. Chiron is the one who raises the prophecy with Percy at the Oracle, while Mr. D refuses Percy's request to lead the quest and gives it to Clarisse. The camp around him includes Annabeth Chase, Clarisse and Tyson. Luke Castellan, who poisons the tree, is the danger hanging over all of them.

In my opinion, Chiron's best scene is the museum sequence in The Lightning Thief, because it gives the character two jobs at once. Mr. Brunner is a teacher who seems ordinary, then helps Percy and Grover fight off a Fury, and the later reveal that he is a centaur recasts the whole scene. It is a neat way to hide a mentor in plain sight.

The arrival at Camp Half-Blood is a close second. It is where the film stops being a chase and becomes a world, and Brunner turning out to be Chiron is part of what makes that shift land. Both films carry a PG rating in the US, and Chiron is one of the gentler presences in them, which may matter if you are watching with a younger viewer.

In Sea of Monsters, the Oracle scene is the one to watch. Chiron suggests that the prophecy about a great hero may concern Percy, and the ending then complicates that idea by pointing toward Thalia. It could be argued that this is the most useful thing Chiron does in the sequel, since the idea he raises is the one the ending questions, and it leaves the larger conflict with Kronos unresolved.

If you want to see how these scenes compare with the original novels, the books versus films page covers the differences. For the order to watch them in, use Percy Jackson movies in order.