As we’ve seen recently, a streaming service investing huge amounts of money into an original movie or TV series is no guarantee that it won’t be cast out into purgatory and made unavailable to watch anywhere just months after debuting, with Disney Plus being the worst offender. In turn, that heaps even more pressure on Percy Jackson and the Olympians to deliver.
According to a new report from Variety, the reboot of author Rick Riordan’s beloved literary series is carrying a price tag of around $12-15 million per episode, which puts it roughly on a par with The Mandalorian in terms of expense. When you multiply that by the eight-episode first season, then you’re talking somewhere in the $100 million range. On the surface, investing that sum of cash into a show would have you believe it’ll be given a chance to prove itself, but history says otherwise.
Let’s not forget that $106 million fantasy series Willow was booted from the content library less than six months after it debuted, while $50 million sci-fi blockbuster Crater was only given seven weeks of existence as a Disney Plus original. Then there’s Artemis Fowl, which has similar origins to Percy Jackson as the effects-heavy fantastical adaptation of a book saga, but the $125 million feature is also gone.
Riordan might be a lot happier with this version of the property than he was first time around, but with Disney in charge and the content purge still ongoing, it’s going to take some seriously impressive viewing figures and an official renewal before the fandom can let out a sigh of relief.