Rick Riordan Gives Big Update on Future Percy Jackson Seasons
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is almost halfway done with its production process, but if the series realizes its full potential, that milestone will be a distant checkpoint by the time everything is said and done. That's because Season 1 will only cover the events of Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief, which is the first of five books in the original Percy Jackson series. To go even further, Riordan has two sequel pentalogies, The Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo, that exist within the world that the son of Poseidon first introduced.
While there's plenty of opportunity down the line, Riordan and company are focused on making this first eight-episode season the best it can be. That said, Riordan told TheWrap that he has a general roadmap for how he envisions telling Percy's complete story on Disney+.
"It's going to be, hopefully, one season for every book," Riordan said. "Which gives us time to do justice to the entire story, as opposed to a movie where you have to make some cuts."
The best-selling author's words ring true, as typical Disney+ seasons total upwards of six hours of content. That's over triple the runtime of 2010's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.
On top of that, scrapped scenes aren't the only thing that plagues film adaptations of popular book franchises. Studios often get impatient with world building, leading to rushed resolutions in order to reach the climactic film quicker. This was especially evident in 2013's Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, which expedited the resurrection of Kronos. Going even further, the cancelled third movie was rumored to skip The Titan's Curse altogether in favor of adapting the events of the flashier fourth book, The Battle of the Labyrinth, next in the series. Riordan's emphasis on doing justice to "the entire story" becomes a lot more possible on a streaming service, as external variables like box office are non-existent.
Star Walker Scobell, who fulfills the show's titular role, had some positive words to say about the film adaptations, but admitted that they are flawed.
"I like them as movies but not as Percy Jackson movies," Scobell said.
Scobell takes the Riptide baton from Logan Lerman, who portrayed Percy in the 2010s movies. Rounding out Scobell's trio are Leah Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri, who play Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood, respectively. While it may be years until fans get to see these actors bring this trio to life, Riordan already has full faith in their portrayals.
"They are the perfect embodiment of the characters that I made up for my son 20 years ago," Riordan proclaimed. "Grover, Annabeth and Percy for a new generation."
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is currently filming.