It seems that just a few years ago, I was in the elementary school library reading one Percy Jackson book after another. Each book contained exhilarating action sequences and even captivating romance. Everyone I knew had read all the Percy Jackson books by the time they were in fifth grade. We all longed for a movie adaptation.
Soon enough, I realized there was already a movie adaptation starring Logan Lerman. The movie series was discontinued after the second movie due to fans complaining about how the film did not stick to the famous book series’ plot.
Percy Jackson fans have been begging for a good, true-to-the-story, well-made adaption for years, and it seems we finally got what we want. On December 20, the new Percy Jackson and The Olympians series premiered on Disney+. The main kids of the show are relatively young newcomers to the Hollywood scene, except for Walker Scobell (Percy) who has previously acted in The Adam Project with Ryan Reynolds. The show is directed by the author of the series Rick Riordan, himself, as well as Jon Steinberg and Dan Schotz. With this extremely talented production team, everyone expected the show to blow the discontinued movie adaptations out of the water. And the trailer released by Disney+ before the premiere left fans confirming this expectation.
How close will the show follow the 5 books? The director, James Bobin, has claimed the show is very faithful to Rick Riordan’s novels, but there are still a few changes. This is a relief to many fans afraid that this show will just be a repeat of the movies.
The first season of the series is modeled after the first book Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. In this novel, he finds out that he is a half-blood, half god-half human, and goes to Camp Half-Blood where he meets Annabeth and Grover, his main friends throughout the series. Percy and his friends then go through a multitude of challenges and near-death experiences to recover Zeus’ lightning bolt.
After watching the first two episodes, I can say with full confidence that this show knocked the movies out of the park and it will continue to grow in popularity as the kids get older. The recent episodes are completely accurate to the novel’s stunning descriptions of the camp and Percy’s relationships. Walker Scobell embodies the sassiness and unknowing power that Percy demonstrates throughout the whole series. This show will become a classic representation of Riordan’s enthralling novels.
While the show is not yet confirmed for a second season, it is said that Riordan and the writers have already begun creating a script for season 2.
Something strange about the show is that I did not see much advertisement for the premiere. The only reason I saw any advertisement is because I followed the show’s Instagram. Not to mention, in the two teasers released by Disney+, there was not much plot to go off of. While I usually hate when trailers show way too much of the movie or show, it seems that these teasers did not show enough to get everybody excited about the show. However, the show already has a large fanbase due to the books, so maybe they are not trying hard to advertise to people who haven’t read the book and are not already interested.
What I believe will contribute a lot to the show’s success, and probably already has, is TikTok. With every video I see about the show, people in the comments are dying to know where they can watch it and what it’s called. It’s growing in popularity every day and hopefully, soon, everyone will get to enjoy the magical world of Percy Jackson.
