Percy Jackson Author Almost Gave Up on Future Adaptations After the Big-Screen Films Disappointed (2024)
It’s no secret that Rick Riordan, who wrote the Percy Jackson book series and executive-produces the upcoming Disney+ live-action series, took major issue with the 2010 film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and its sequel Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
In his notes to movie producers in 2009, he called the Lightning Thief script “terrible” as a whole and maligned the age-inappropriate swearing as a “lazy attempt to make the script seem hip to teens.” Responding to a fan in 2020 who said he hated the films more than they did, Riordan shared that it was “my life’s work going through a meat grinder when I pleaded with them not to do it.”
With Percy Jackson and the Olympiansset to premiere Wednesday, Dec. 20 on Disney+, Riordan — who wrote the first two episodes with Jon Steinberg (Black Sails, Jericho) —is opening up about how his lackluster experience on the big-screen films nearly put him off of future adaptations of his beloved book series.
“After the movie experience, I basically wrote off Hollywood for a long, long time. I really didn’t want to have anything to do with the film industry,” he told our sister site Variety. “There were many years of me saying, ‘I don’t want to engage. I don’t want to think about other adaptations. I’m done.’”
But that all changed in 2019 when the Walt Disney Co. bought out 20th Century Fox, also acquiring the screen rights for Percy Jackson in the process. It took some convincing — and manymeetings with different Disney executives —before he and his wife Rebecca signed onto the project as executive producers. Riordan then pushed for a TV series instead of another film adaptation.
“My feeling was always that television was the better format for Percy, because it allows us a larger canvas to tell more of the story,” he explained. “And to be more faithful to the source material, which is what the fans of the books really would love to see.”
Adhering to Riordan’s original wishes, the forthcoming series will feature an age-appropriate leading trio, including The Adam Project’s Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson, Aryan Simhadri as Grover and Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth.
The cast also includes the late Lance Reddick as Zeus, Adam Copeland (aka WWE’s Edge) as Ares, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes, Megan Mullally as Alecto aka Mrs. Dodds, Toby Stephens as Poseidon, Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson, Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus aka Mr. D and Jay Duplass as Hades.
Rounding out the ensemble are Glynn Turman as Chiron aka Mr. Brunner, Charlie Bushnell as Luke Castellan, Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse La Rue,Jessica Parker Kennedy as Medusa, Olivea Morton as Nancy Bobofit, Suzanne Cryer as Echidna, Timm Sharp as Gabe Ugliano and Timothy Omundson as Hephaestus.
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“After the movie experience, I basically wrote off Hollywood for a long, long time.I really didn't want to have anything to do with the film industry,” he told our sister site Variety. “There were many years of me saying, 'I don't want to engage. I don't want to think about other adaptations.
The movies changed everything that was beloved about the books, including the age of the characters and the tone of the story. The movies also failed at setting up future sequels and overlooked important plot points and character dynamics from the books, ultimately undermining any potential for a successful franchise.
Because Percy was already a great warrior and had already defeated Luke once and had seemingly completely come into his powers, not only did the movie provide fans with a disappointing and inaccurate adaptation, it also put the rest of the series on a weak footing, something Walker Scobell's Percy Jackson show will ...
I'm a big Percy Jackson fan and have read all of the books and accompanying series. The movies divert from the original source material. Rick Riordan himself has said he didn't like them at all. They change the entire plot and premise and besides, the characters start off as 13 NOT 16 like portrayed in the movies.
Summary. Percy Jackson movies disappointed fans and performed poorly at the box office, leading to the abandonment of Percy Jackson 3. The Percy Jackson TV show on Disney+ offers a chance for a faithful adaptation of the books, with the author's involvement ensuring a true-to-source material approach.
In the debut movie “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” Percy is a 17 year old high school boy with ADHD and dyslexia struggling with school, and getting into lots of trouble. Unbeknownst to him, he is also the son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea.
After an altercation with bully Nancy Bobofit at the water fountain, Percy is falsely accused of pushing her. Mrs. Dodds leads Percy deeper into the museum to punish him. As she is demanding a confession from Percy, she transforms into a Fury, a mythical creature with bat wings and yellow fangs.
In his notes to movie producers in 2009, he called the Lightning Thief script “terrible” as a whole and maligned the age-inappropriate swearing as a “lazy attempt to make the script seem hip to teens.” Responding to a fan in 2020 who said he hated the films more than they did, Riordan shared that it was “my life's work ...
Percy Jackson: His fatal flaw is excessive personal loyalty. He will risk his life (and even the world) for his friends, family, and sometimes even strangers and enemies with whom he empathizes (like when he warned enemy demigods that the Princess Andromeda was about to explode).
However, through the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and beyond, Percy Jackson, along with other demigods, suffer from dyslexia. This is explained to Percy by Annabeth Chase, who informs him that their dyslexia is a result of demigods' brains being "hard-wired" to interpret Ancient Greek, not English.
In the movies, while Percy may be more accurate, Grover and Annabeth are unrecognizable as the characters Rick Riordan created. While the show may have made changes, the spirit of characters that drew fans to the series in the first place is still there, making it a more enjoyable watch for fans.
Pan disappeared 2,000 years ago due to humans' destruction of his wild kingdoms. Satyrs like Grover have been searching for him ever since, believing he is still alive. Grover eventually finds Pan in the fourth book, but the god is on the brink of death. Pan entrusts Grover to carry on his message before he fades away.
Reboot. The rights to the Percy Jackson novels were transferred to Disney following its acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019. In May 2020, Riordan announced that Disney would be producing a live-action television series following the story of the series, with the first season adapting The Lightning Thief.
There can be a lot of reasons why the public demands a new remake: maybe the original film had major inaccuracies from its source material or perhaps the characters were woefully miscast. Maybe it just wasn't good. In the case of “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” it checked all three boxes.
Is Percy Jackson 3 happening? Logan Lerman says no - IMDb. Logan Lerman has said that a third Percy Jackson movie is "not happening". The Noah star took on the title role in 2010's fantasy film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and last year's sequel Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.
Filming ended in February 2023. Then, the show actually aired in December of 2023. So, by that math, let's say at the earliest Percy Jackson starts filming in September 2024. That would be March 2025 to finish filming, then if post-production is the same, that would be January of 2026.
Plus, the violence level is high for a PG-rated movie: Monsters are very frightning, especially the demonic ones -- like Hades aflame with skeletal wings and a fury sent to destroy Percy -- characters (monster and human) are impaled and slashed at with swords, and Percy's mom is crushed by a minotaur and taken to the ...
Instead, Luke is positioned as the series' main antagonist alongside the Titan Kronos. As such, the filmmakers of 2010's Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief likely left Ares out of the story to set up Luke's villain role more clearly with the benefit of future installments in mind.
Introduction: My name is Lidia Grady, I am a thankful, fine, glamorous, lucky, lively, pleasant, shiny person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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