Hold on to your lightning bolts! The Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series is officially being adapted into a television show for Disney+.
Reports of a possible television adaptation — based on the fantasy novels by Rick Riordan — first started swirling in May 2020. At the time, Riordan and his wife, Becky Riordan, appeared to confirm the news in a video uploaded to his website.
“Hey Percy Jackson fans, for the past decade, you’ve worked hard to champion a faithful on-screen adaptation of Percy Jackson’s world,” the author wrote, in part, alongside the 18-second clip. “Some of you have even suggested it would be a good series for Disney+. We couldn’t agree more!”
The five-book series — which was published between 2005 and 2009 — introduced fans to a 12-year-old Demigod named Percy Jackson, who discovers early on that he’s the son of the Greek God Poseidon.
Riordan’s novels were previously adapted into a two-film series starring Logan Lerman as the title character alongside Brandon T. Jackson as Grover Underwood and Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth Chase. The first movie, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, premiered in February 2010 with the second, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, premiering in August 2013.
Over the years, the film adaptations have been widely criticized by fans of the original book series and Riordan himself.
“I still have not seen the movies, and don’t plan on ever doing so,” the author wrote in a since-deleted Twitter post from June 2020, per Entertainment Weekly. “I judge them from having read the scripts, because I care most about the story. I certainly have nothing against the very talented actors. Not their fault. I’m just sorry they got dragged into that mess.”
So, when the opportunity for a Percy Jackson TV series came across his desk, Riordan was initially very skeptical.
“I’m not a fan of Hollywood, I’ve never been starstruck. I could[n’t] care less about TV and film, honestly. But that’s not true of my fans. They really wanted new adaptations, and they felt bitterly disappointed by the movies,” he told The Guardian in October 2020, noting that he and his wife “owed it to the fans to try one more time.”
Even Lerman, who played Percy Jackson in the films, is on board with the upcoming TV show.
“Excited to see this!” the Perks of Being a Wallflower star wrote on Twitter in May 2020 alongside an article about the show. “Hope it gets the adaptation the books deserve.”
Scroll through our gallery for everything to know about the Percy Jackson series so far: