Percy Jackson and the Olympians Becomes Biggest Disney Television Premiere of All Time
The series premiered to 13.3 million views in its first seven days.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians arrived on Disney+ to much fanfare. The serialized adaptation of Rick Riordan's best-selling novels was first given the development nod back in May 2020, kicking off an extensive pre-production process. The show, which would be adapting Riordan's The Lightning Thief for its first season, found its cast in the front half of 2022 ahead of an eight-month production process that wrapped this past February. From there, the eight-episode season fine-tuned its VFX in post-production, polishing everything for a December drop date. That rollout came synced to the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike, meaning the cast was free to promote the project and attend its red blue carpet premiere.
While Percy Jackson was being advertised for a December 20th 3 AM ET drop a la WandaVision and The Mandalorian, Disney+ surprised fans by giving the series a Tuesday evening primetime release for the entirety of its first season. As it turns out, that move was a resounding success.
Percy Jackson Sets Massive Disney Record
Rick Riordan's world of demigods and monsters just became immortalized.
As touted by Disney in a press release, Percy Jackson and the Olympians "is the top Disney Branded Television premiere of all time" as well as being "one of the top five season premieres of 2023." This is thanks to its first episode bringing in 13.3 million views globally across both Disney+ and Hulu in its first six days streaming.
On social media, the #PercyJackson hashtag brought in 212 million views on TikTok within the last seven days.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians debuts new episodes every Tuesday at 9 PM ET on Disney+. Tune into ComicBook Nation presents Riptide Radio – A Percy Jackson Aftershow immediately after for an in-depth discussion and exclusive interview!
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1 is based off of the first novel in Rick Riordan's critically-acclaimed book series, The Lightning Thief. Starring Walker Scobell (The Adam Project) as the titular demigod, this eight-episode first season embarks Percy on a quest to return Zeus's stolen master bolt, as he is framed as the prime suspect. If he is not successful by the Summer Solstice deadline, the world bears the consequences of Mount Olympus in-fighting. The series also stars Aryan Simhadri (Grover Underwood), Leah Jeffries (Annabeth Chase), Glynn Turman (Chiron), Jason Mantzoukas (Dionysus), Dior Goodjohn (Clarisse La Rue), Charlie Bushnell (Luke), Adam "Edge" Copeland (Ares), Jay Duplass (Hades), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hermes), Timothy Omundson (Hephaestus), Lance Reddick (Zeus), and Toby Stephens (Poseidon).