On Thursday, May 14, author Rick Riordan announced that his bestselling young adult book series, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” will be adapted into a live-action television show that will be available to stream through Disney+.
The collection of books follows Percy Jackson, a young New Yorker with a single mother who discovers that he’s the son of a Greek god. Percy is caught up in a whirl-wind of adventure and danger as he navigates the world of Greek mythology hidden in plain sight amongst modern society.
Riordan released a brief video of him and his wife, Becky Riordan, making the announcement on his Twitter and Instagram accounts (@rickriordan), as well as on his Facebook profile and website. The video was accompanied by a short note that congratulated fans.
“Hey Percy Jackson fans, for the past decade, you’ve worked hard to champion a faithful on-screen adaption of Percy Jackson’s world. Some of you have even suggested it would be a great series for Disney+. We couldn’t agree more,” said Riordan.
After promising that more details would follow, the message went on to say that the first season of the show will begin where “The Lightning Thief,” the first novel in the Percy Jackson series, left off. The Riordan’s also assured fans that they would be closely involved in the making of the show, overseeing all aspects in-person.
Sparking even more excitement, on May 15, Riordan shared a photo to his Twitter account of what appeared to be the title page of the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” script along with the caption “hope you guys have a great weekend! I know I will. I have some work to do.”
No details about casting were revealed with Riordan later tweeting “there won’t be any further info we can share for a while (on casting, auditioning, or anything like that) because it’s WAY too early. But when we can share more, we will post!” on May 18.
However, this isn’t the first time that the Percy Jackson series has been adapted from page to screen. In 2010, 20th Century Fox released “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” starring Logan Lerman as Percy that covered the events of Riordan’s first novel. This film was followed by “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” in 2013 to cover Riordan’s second novel, but the series never went any further. This left the rest of the Percy Jackson books,“The Titan’s Curse,” “The Battle of the Labyrinth” and “The Last Olympian” untouched.
For now, Percy Jackson fans are waiting with bated breath, ready for the novels to come to life once more.
