Rick Riordan is optimistic about the upcoming Percy Jackson series being renewed for further seasons. The TV series, which will premiere exclusively on Disney+, is based on Riordan’s book series, Percy Jackson & The Olympians. The five-book series would eventually become a franchise of its own, with supplementary books, two sequel series, a graphic novel series, and two film adaptations. As of this year, Percy Jackson & The Olympians has sold more than 180 million copies worldwide, making it the fourteenth best-selling book series of all time.
Though Percy Jackson has had screen adaptations before, its film duology (The Lightning Thief in 2010 and its sequel, Sea of Monsters in 2013) was met with mixed reviews from critics, and outright bad reviews from Percy Jackson fans. With both fans and Riordan himself eager for a more faithful screen adaptation of the much-beloved books, Riordan pitched a TV adaption to Disney in late 2019, and in May of 2020 it was announced that Disney+ had greenlit a Percy Jackson series. Filming began on the show in June 2022, and is still ongoing. While there is no set release date yet, Riordan has predicted the series is likely to be released sometime in late 2023 or early 2024.
In a Goodreads author Q&A, Riordan says that he’s optimistic about the Percy Jackson series being renewed for further seasons, ahead of the first season’s release. Riordan says that the show’s plan will be to follow the plot of one Percy Jackson book per season, with season one following the first book, The Lightning Thief. Though Riordan admits the show is currently only greenlit for one season, he is very hopeful that there will be more to come. Read Riordan’s full comment below:
“That’s the idea, yes. Of course, first we have to get approval to do future seasons. Right now, we are only green-lit for one season, but if you all watch and like it, I am optimistic we will get approval to do more.”
With the only significant negative response to the new Percy Jackson series having been racist backlash against Leah Sava Jeffries’ portrayal of Annabeth Chase, longtime Percy Jackson fans seem to be just as optimistic about the show as Riordan. With behind the scenes images of pivotal scenes, costumes, and locations having been revealed online, audiences are already praising Percy Jackson for being more faithful to the original novels than the previous film adaptations. As of mid-August, Riordan announced that Percy Jackson had already finished filming about half of The Lightning Thief, and that the series will delve further into the books’ character backstories.
Though the series is still more than a year away from being released, having Riordan’s stamp of approval on the show is already reassuring to fans, especially those who felt burned by the Percy Jackson films. The films were notorious for not including Riordan in any key decisions, and eventually, the author stepped away from working on the films entirely. However, Riordan is working closely on the TV adaptation, posting regular production updates on his blog, and praising early footage of the series. While it still may be some time before the series is up on Disney+, set photos, Riordan’s updates, and the author’s optimism on the possibility of future seasons are spelling out success for Percy Jackson.
