Percy Jackson: Rick Riordan Reveals The Four Essentials For Disney+ Series

Greek gods and mythological monsters are coming to Disney+. Percy Jackson and the Olympians wrapped production this past February, concluding its eight-month shoot for its upcoming eight-episode first season. This serialized live-action adaptation of Rick Riordan's best-selling Percy Jackson novels is Hollywood's second attempt at launching the IP, as two feature films came about in the early 2010s but did not garner enough critical acclaim or financial gain to warrant completing the franchise. While there are many things that make the Percy Jackson show distinct from the Percy Jackson movies, the biggest difference comes with Riordan's involvement.

When Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was gearing up for production 14 years ago, Riordan wrote extensive emails to 20th Century Fox pleading that the studio consider revising the film's script, which infamously deviated significantly from the source material. Despite his best efforts, Riordan's input was ignored.

This time around, Riordan is an official executive producer on Disney+'s Percy Jackson and has guided the project every step of the way, from early writers' rooms to the last day on set.

"For a long time, I had kind of just assumed that was it for me and the TV and film industry, that we gave it a shot and it didn't work out," Riordan told THR. "What changed is the acquisition of Fox by Disney. Disney has always been the publisher for Percy Jackson. Talking to my wife, I think we both said, you know, there might be an opportunity here."

Even with the IP migrating to Disney's sandbox after the house of moused acquired 20th Century Fox, Riordan still had his hesitations.

"I hadn't had the best experience before. It's not an industry that I know, or that I've ever honestly wanted to be a part of. It's not something that I ever dreamed about, becoming a producer," Riordan continued. "I'm perfectly happy writing books. But I knew that the fans of the books really, really wanted a good adaptation, another try. So it was really for them. We dove in with both feet, and for the last three years, that's been a major part of what we've been up to."

While episodes have yet to be seen by the public, Percy Jackson fans have been overwhelmingly positive towards the production process. Much of that is due to early tidbits indicating that the show will be faithful to the books, evident by Camp Half-Blood's design, Zeus and Poseidon's attires, and the cast's ages.

Riordan noted that this was established in the show by putting an emphasis on four essential aspects.

"One thing that we all agreed on was that we should do everything we could to preserve what makes Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson. That's a combination of modern-day setting, classical mythology, action, and humor," Riordan noted. "One of the ways that that manifested is making sure that we found actors who were an age that was appropriate for the way Percy is at the beginning of the books, so that viewers could watch Percy (Walker Scobell) and Annabeth (Leah Jeffries) and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) grow up on the screen, the way that you read about them growing up from age 12 to 16 in the five books. I'm certainly gratified that we did it that way, because the young actors that we found are fantastic."

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1 is currently in post-production and will premiere on Disney+ in 2024.