Creator of Epic the Musical, Jorge Rivera-Herrans has revealed that his next project will be Ilium the Musical, telling the story of some of the iconic characters written by Homer.

Ilium, his newest project, is based on the Iliad, one of the oldest pieces of literature in the world, telling the story of the Trojan War. How Paris kidnapped Helen and King Agamemnon who rallied the kings of Greece to rescue Helen., Thisthis epic poem also tells the story of Achilles son of Peleus and Odysseus king of Ithaca. The Iliad has inspired and influenced many works over the years, Ilium being the latest.

When Rivera first started writing Epic in 2019, his plans were that the first act would be based on the Iliad and the second on the Odyssey. Later, he decided against it and based both acts on the Odyssey, focusing on the struggles Odysseus faced on his journey home.

After the release of Epic, Rivera was sent a question by a fan asking if he would ever consider making a musical relating to the Iliad, to which he responded, “Now that I’ve finished Epic, I would be lying if I said that I don’t think about the Iliad, more like Trojan War as whole, all the time. …There are so many characters on both the Greek and the Trojan side that are so interesting to me and have so much depth to them and I see a lot of opportunities and potential in focusing on all of them.” Rivera said.

Soon after that, he released a video talking about what themes he would include in the musical if he did commit to it. These topics included pride and humility; the ways in which pride can be helpful and how humility can both help and hold us back.

In another announcement he stated he had begun working on the first two songs, one of which was titled “Fire”. 

A few weeks later he released his first draft of the song “Fire” on piano, “Never shall I gaze upon a blazing Troy / Never would I yield to such a fate / Tell me what you saw beyond that hazy void / The one your gift of prophecy creates,” sang Rivera. 

Fans immediately began making fan content, ranging from duets and covers to short animations depicting Troy ablaze, Hector and Cassandra.

As the musical is still in its first stages, it is not known whether Rivera will once again commission artists for Ilium as he did for Epic, though many speculate online. As more updates come out, the musical’s structure should get clearer, Epic was released as 9 albums called “sagas” and it remains to be seen whether Ilium will follow in its predecessors footsteps.