The first trailer for Percy Jackson and the Olympians exemplifies the Disney+ show’s main advantage over the previous adaptations of Rick Riordan’s books. In 2010, Chris Columbus directed the first movie based on the Percy Jackson franchise. Titled Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, the adaptation received criticism for its lack of faithfulness to the source material. Its 2013 sequel, Percy Jackson: Seas of Monsters wasn’t seen as an improvement. Now, fortunately, Disney’s series reboot, which has Riordan’s involvement, is aiming to do much better.
When Percy Jackson and the Olympians was announced as a streaming TV series for Disney+, fans of the books were naturally wary due to the poor quality and reception of the movies. Walker Scobell, who is playing the title character, then revealed more details about Percy Jackson’s personality for the TV show, and the new adaptation began to seem a significant improvement over the previous attempt. The reason for this mainly comes from the show clearly being much more faithful to Rick Riordan’s source material than the movie version, with one key advantage at its center.
That advantage is Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson books. He was openly critical of the 2010 movie, stating his disappointment with the many changes the screenplay made to his original stories. Upon the announcement of the Disney+ show, Riordan confirmed his direct involvement, including being the main writer of the show’s scripts. This came as a relief, especially to the fans of the books, as it proved that Percy Jackson and the Olympians will be much more faithful to the novels and avoid the issues that plagued the Percy Jackson movies, Having Riordan directly involved is a major advantage over the previous adaptations as it the show will likely follow the structure of the books.
The Percy Jackson Disney+ Show Is Fixing Old Live-Action Mistakes
The advantage of Rick Riordan’s involvement with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians show is already evident in the first trailer. The trailer includes a voice-over from Walker Scobell reciting the opening lines from the first book, The Lightning Thief, which serves as the basis for season 1 of the Percy Jackson show. These lines have become synonymous with Percy Jackson’s character to fans of the books and iconic in their own right, so including them in the trailer narrated to perfection by Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson is a great way to indicate just how faithful this series will be in comparison to the previous live-action attempts.
Another way the Percy Jackson and the Olympians trailer reveals the show is correcting prior mistakes is through its visuals. One thing that is so carefully described in the books is the geography of Camp Half-Blood. The cabin area in which the demigods are housed during their stay is described as a “U” shape, with five cabins on either side of a huge field and fire pit, and two at the head of the field. The trailer clearly shows this, with Percy walking past two cabins before entering his own. The movies didn’t adapt any of this from the book, instead having Percy living in something more akin to a beach house that his father apparently built for him. The Percy Jackson and the Olympians show including such details proves the advantage of Rick Riordan’s involvement, as it demonstrates its greater faithfulness to the books that people know and love compared to the previous live-action adaptations.
