The ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ TV Series: Everything We Know
Hold your lightning bolts! The Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series is officially being adapted into a television show for Disney+.
Reports of a possible television adaptation – based on .’s fantasy novels Rick Riordan – first started whirling in May 2020. At the time, Riordan and his wife, Becky Riordanappeared to confirm the news in a video uploaded to his website.
“Hi Percy Jackson fans, you’ve worked hard over the past decade to advocate for a faithful on-screen adaptation of Percy Jackson’s world,” the author wrote, partially alongside the 18-second clip. “Some of you have even suggested that it would be a good series for Disney+. We couldn’t agree more!”
The five-book series — which was published between 2005 and 2009 — introduced fans to a 12-year-old demigod named Percy Jackson, who discovers early on that he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon.
Riordan’s novels were previously adapted into a series of two films starring Logan Lerman as the title character next to it Brandon T. Jackson as Grover Underwood and Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth Chase. the first movie, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thiefpremiered in February 2010 with the second, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsterspremiered in August 2013.
Over the years, the film adaptations have been widely criticized by fans of the original book series and Riordan himself.
“I still haven’t seen the movies and don’t plan to ever,” the author wrote in a since-deleted June 2020 Twitter post, per Weekly entertainment. “I rate them based on reading the scripts, because the story interests me the most. I certainly have nothing against the very talented actors. Not their fault. I’m just sorry they got dragged into that mess.”
So, when the opportunity for a Percy Jackson TV series landed on his desk, Riordan was initially very skeptical.
“I’m not a Hollywood fan, I’ve never been starstruck. I can[n’t] honestly care less about tv and movie. But that doesn’t apply to my fans. They really wanted new adaptations, and they were bitterly disappointed by the movies,” he said the guard in October 2020, noting that he and his wife “owed it to the fans to give it another try.”
Even Lerman, who played Percy Jackson in the movies, is on board with the upcoming TV show.
“Excited to see this!” the Benefits of being a wallflower star wrote on Twitter in May 2020 alongside an article about the show. “I hope it gets the adaptation the books deserve.”
Browse our gallery for everything you need to know about the Percy Jackson series so far: