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Percy Jackson may be a well-known demigod, but he is far from the only character placed front and center in author Rick Riordan’s ever-expanding universe. Six series stretched across multiple mythologies are accompanied by graphic novels, companion guides, a musical, and two movies (although the fandom and author are very adamant that Hollywood’s interpretations should be banished to Hades).
Soon, the franchise is expanding once more with a TV series slated to arrive on Disney+ in early 2024 (( McCall, Kevin. “’Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Disney+ Series Eyes Early 2024 Release Date.” July 25, 2022. )). Here’s everything you need to know about Riordan’s universe before the adventure begins once more.
The Riordan Universe
Rick Riordan’s first installment in the Percy Jackson series, The Lightning Thief, was published in 2005. At the tender age of 12, Percy is told that not only is he the son of Poseidon, but that monsters will start trying to find and kill him because of it. To protect himself and his loved ones, Percy flees to Camp Half-Blood; a safe haven for young demigods. Unfortunately for young Percy, the camp only serves as a diving board, sending him head-first into the deep end of godly politics.
Percy Jackson & The Olympians
Spanning five books between 2005 and 2009, the Percy Jackson series follows these adventures and introduces readers to several pivotal characters including Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood.
The Heroes Of Olympus And The Kane Chronicles
In a continuation of Percy’s adventures, Riordan penned The Heroes of Olympus series between 2010 and 2014. These books not only introduced new point-of-view characters like Nico di Angelo, Piper McLean, Jason Grace, and Hazel Levesque, but established an important fact about Riordan’s universe: Greek and Roman mythology co-exist.
At the same time, the Kane Chronicles trilogy — published between 2010 and 2012 — added Egyptian mythology to Riordan’s universe. Siblings Carter and Sadie Kane follow a similar journey to Percy and his friends, fighting against gods and goddesses who interact with the modern world.
Riordan’s passion for his incredibly popular universe is clear throughout this time period, with 12 companion texts being published alongside the three series.
Magnus Chase And The Gods Of Asgard And The Trials Of Apollo
The universe continued to expand past that, though, with Riordan’s Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy (2015-2017). This time, readers are introduced to Norse mythology through the young demigod Magnus Chase.
Most recently, The Trials of Apollo revisits the Greek roots of Riordan’s universe. The five-book series, published between 2016 and 2020, brings a fresh perspective as it follows the misadventures of Apollo, Greek god of the sun (among a lengthy list of other things), who has been turned mortal in the modern world.
The Trials of Apollo. Rick Riordan. 2016.
The Appeal Of Riordan’s Writing Style
Considering books alone, this is already an overwhelming amount of content. Of course, as any member of the fandom will tell you, it sounds much more complicated than it actually is. Riordan – a former middle-school teacher – is highly praised for his ability to make every aspect of a story easy to digest.
Like other beloved children’s series, the Percy Jackson universe is equally as adored by adult readers as it is treasured by its “intended” audience of pre-teens. The complexities of a world where four mythologies co-exist and are explored by a dozen leading characters are handled effortlessly by Riordan. The edges of each narrative bleed ever so subtly into one another, establishing a connection while maintaining individuality.
Perhaps the craftsmanship involved in creating such a universe is exactly why Riordan’s work has sold over 180 million copies worldwide (( Disney+. “Disney+ Has Ordered A Thrilling Quest Based On “Percy Jackson And The Olympians,” The Internationally Best-Selling Book Series By Rick Riordan, To Go Into Production This Summer.” January 25, 2022. )) and inspired a menagerie of adaptations.
Previous Adaptations Of Percy Jackson
In 2004, 20th Century Fox acquired the feature film rights to the first Percy Jackson book and hired Chris Columbus to direct the project in 2007. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief was released in 2010 and grossed $227 million worldwide (( Box Office Mojo. “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.” )). The cast consisted of Logan German as Percy Jackson, Brandon T. Jackson as Grover Underwood, and Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth Chase. Sean Bean played Zeus with Kevin McKidd taking on the role of Poseidon (( IMDb. “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.” 2010. )).
Despite the film’s commercial success, Riordan has always been critical of the adaptation ((Rico, Klaritza. “‘‘Percy Jackson’ Author Slams Films: ‘It’s My Life’s Work Going Through a Meat Grinder.’” June 8, 2020. )) and does not mince words when describing his experience with Hollywood’s handling of his work. “As I’ve said many times, once I saw the final script and saw what they were doing on set, I realized I had to step away for my own peace of mind (( Riordan, Rick. “Memories from my TV/Movie Experience.” November 16, 2018. )).”
In a blog post, Riordan admits that he’s never actually seen the movies, but explains by saying, “What I know of them, and how I judge them, is based entirely on my experiences with the produces and on the final scripts.” It is in that same blog post that Riordan shares word-for-word emails he sent to the team behind the movie, including a blunt evaluation of the script.
“The script as a whole is terrible. I don’t simply mean that it deviates from the book, though certainly it does that to the point of being almost unrecognizable as the same story. Fans of the books will be angry and disappointed. They will leave the theater in droves and generate horrible word of mouth. That is an absolute given if the script goes forward as it stands now.”
Rick Riordan
The sequel, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) was directed by Thor Freudenthalgrossed $200 million at the box office (( Box Office Mojo. “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.” )). It featured the same cast with the addition of several well-known actors like Stanley Tucci, Nathan Fillion, and Octavia Spencer (( IMDb. “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.” 2013. )). Riordan is equally, if not more, critical of this adaptation.
The fandom largely agrees with Riordan and the films have become a sort of meme within the community, ending up as the butt of jokes about poorly done adaptations and the author’s worst nightmares.
An Unexpected Musical
Thankfully for all invested and involved, things have been looking up for Percy Jackson adaptations since a surprising addition to the universe in the form of a musical.
In 2014, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical began an off-broadway run. Its popularity resulted in a new score and expanded script which would see two national tours (2014; 2019), an off-broadway revival (2017), and, finally, a run on Broadway (2019) (( Wikipedia. “’The Lightning Thief’ (musical).” )). Although it didn’t receive rave reviews from Broadway critics, the musical is widely beloved by the fandom with Riordan himself going so far as to give the show his blessing (( Gordon, David. “The Writers of ‘The Lightning Thief’ Got to Broadway by Pleasing the Fans.” October 14, 2019. )).
The musical may have been a sign from the gods because shortly after its introduction to the Riordan universe, there was buzz about a new adaption. This time, the series would play out across a TV series on Disney+.
A New Adaptation: Will Disney+ Survive Its Quest?
In the summer of 2020, Riordan posted a (no longer available) video to Twitter announcing a new adaptation of his novel to be developed by Disney+. According to Riordan, the project was intended to be a live-action series. Despite the large amount of excitement the announcement generated, Riordan and his wife, Becky, stated upfront that they were unable to give any more detail.
They did, however, explicitly reassure fans that they “will be involved in person in every aspect of the show” (( Otterson, Joe. “Percy Jackson Series in Development at Disney Plus.” May 14, 2020. )). It wasn’t until January 2022 that entertainment news outlets began reporting that Disney+ had given an official greenlight to the project. It was reported that Jon Steinberg, alongside Riordan, would be writing the plot, with James Tobin directing (( Otterson, Joe. “‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Series Gets Greenlight at Disney Plus.” January 25, 2022. )).
In what would certainly serve as even further reassurance to the fandom, Riordan and his wife were both listed as executive producers alongside seven other individuals. Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television, released a statement saying, “With Rick Riordan, Jon Steinberg and Dan Shotz leading our creative team, we’re deep into creating a compelling TV series worthy of the heroic mythological characters that millions of Percy Jackson readers know are well-worth caring about, and we’re eager to invite Disney+ audiences into stories that are true to the blockbuster franchise and full of anticipation, humor, surprise, and mystery” (( Otterson. 2020. )).
Casting News
Fans wouldn’t have to wait nearly as long for news going forward with the casting for Percy Jackson himself being announced in April. Young actor Walker Scobell – fresh from his film debut in Netflix’s The Adam Project (2022) – is slated to play the titular role.
Riordan took to his blog to praise the casting process, emphasizing that age-appropriate actors were non-negotiable for him this time. Scobell, 13, is only one year older than Percy at the start of the series. Shortly after, Riordan also clarified that the casting is “100% my choices, my decisions” and that he could not be happier or more confident in the project.
Less than a month later, Aryan Simhadri and Leah Sava Jeffries were announced as the series’ Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase. At 16 and 12 respectively, these two accomplished young actors rounded out the lead trio and left the fandom filled with excitement about what was to come.
Hurry Up And Wait
Over the following months, Riordan kept fans updated with frequent check-ins via his blog. Since May, the author and executive producer have shared teasing insights and even a few nondescript photos. At the time of this article’s writing, the most recent post celebrated Percy Jackson’s birthday with a photo of Scobell, Simhadri, and Jeffries on set.
Riordan follows the picture by answering some “burning questions” about Percy as a character as well as the series’ development. The last question reads, “Will you release video footage for his birthday?” In response, Riordan writes, “Sorry, it is still way, way, way too early for that. We are just in the stage of dailies and ‘rough assemblages’ of the early episodes…Maybe for his birthday next year, it will be a different story, but that’s not a promise” (( Riordan, Rick. “Happy Birthday, Percy!” August 18, 2022. )). This correlates with a previous update from Riordan in July which explained that the team had “mostly finished the principal photography” for Episode 1 as well as “a good chunk of the filming” for Episode 2 (( McCall, Kevin. “’Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Disney+ Series Eyes Early 2024 Release Date.” July 25, 2022. )).
Unfortunately, much of the process behind making films and television shows involves a lot of hurry up and wait. Riordan continues to reassure fans of the series that it will be worth it in the end:
“This show is the most ambitious project any of us have ever done, even for our seasoned and experienced team members. A huge number of sets. Complicated special effects. Young actors leading the show. That all takes time. But the payoff will be worth it. I am confident of that.”
(( McCall. 2022. )).