Percy Jackson is set to dominate the 2020s nearly twenty years after he was introduced to audiences. The new decade kicked off with news that Disney+ would be working directly with author Rick Riordan to adapt Percy Jackson and the Olympians into a streaming series. That led to the show being developed over the course of the next two years, eventually casting Walker Scobell (The Adam Project) as the titular star. Percy Jackson and the Olympians would then spend eight months in production, recently wrapping filming a couple of weeks ago.
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Outside of the serialized adaptation, the Percy Jackson novelized world has continued to expand. October 2020 saw the release of the final installment in The Trials of Apollo sequel series, while this summer will be home to The Sun and the Star, a spin-off book centered around Nico di Angelo and Will Solace.
The novelized PJO expansion doesn’t stop there. This fall, Riordan will be releasing a sixth Percy Jackson book, one which directly follows up the events of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian.
“We were looking at the adaptation process again,” Riordan told EW regarding his idea to revisit the original Percy Jackson series. “[It] was kind of my idea to sort of pitch something that might be of interest to Disney overall as a way of saying, ‘Well, what we could do is if you guys are open to doing a new TV show, maybe I could revisit Percy and do a new Percy book for the first time in umpteen number of years.’ It felt like the right thing to do to celebrate Percy Jackson coming home to a new adaptation.”
This sixth book, The Chalice of the Gods, is described as a day-in-the-life adventure for Percy and company that centers around Ganymede’s stolen cup that grants immortality to those who drink from it.
“The story was just fun. I like the idea that Percy has a day-in-the-life adventure, and it’s not the world is at stake,” Riordan continued. “It’s a whodunit, really: Who stole the cup?”
Riordan found himself in a unique position when penning The Chalice of the Gods. This is the first time that he is writing a Percy Jackson book with production on a live-action adaptaion in the rear view.
“When my wife, Becky — who is always my first editor and my first reader — first read parts of Chalice of the Gods for me, she said, ‘It’s amazing how much of the TV show is in this new book,’” Riordan revealed. “Not content-wise, but in terms of voice and just little nuances that we snuck into the TV show that are informing the new book with Percy. It’s been a great amount of fun to do both at the same time.”
Since Riordan last wrote in Percy’s voice, the son of Poseidon has undergone significant changes. He’s been through the entire Heroes of Olympus adventure and has popped up for cameos in The Trials of Apollo. That said, this book takes place before the events of the latter, meaning Percy still has the wisdom he gained from his quests throughout both the original and the Heroes sequel series.
“He’s older and wiser, to a point. He has a lot of experience to draw on,” Riordan said. “He’s not the new demigod on the block anymore, but he still has that same snarky sense of humor. The Percy Jackson voice was the easiest thing for me to get back into. It’s just so near and dear to me. It was really lovely to be able to write from Percy’s first-person point of view again, which I haven’t done in quite a while. It’s like a high school reunion: Let’s go back and see our old friends again and get back into that vibe that we had in the original series to celebrate The Lightning Thief being reborn.”
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods hits bookshelves on September 26th.
