Ryan Gosling’s Young Hercules: A Single-Season Prequel Worth Watching

Young Hercules was Ryan Gosling’s first major series, following the demigod’s training under the centaur Cheiron as he battled the dark forces of Ares. The part was not originally Gosling’s: the show began with a TV movie starring Ian Bohen, who left before Gosling stepped into the lead.

Gosling’s performance gives the character more texture than the flawless hero seen elsewhere, showing mistakes, struggles for Zeus’s recognition and the ups and downs of adolescence. The series also develops Hercules’s relationships with companions like Iolaus and Jason, while Theseus appears in later episodes.

The show ran for a single season of 50 episodes, ending with the finale “Valley of the Shadow,” in which a mysterious old man who summons Hercules is revealed to be Zeus in disguise. That twist reframes Hercules’s later meeting with his father in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

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