For the past couple of years, creator Rick Riordan has kept hopeful fans updated about his attempts to bring his Percy Jackson books back to the screen. Their patience has now paid off as Disney Plus has officially confirmed it’s ordered a TV adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians to series. The good news came with an announcement video from Riordan, which you can view above.
Riordan and Jon Steinberg (Black Sails) will write the pilot, with James Bobin (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) directing. A Disney veteran, the Alice Through the Looking Glass filmmaker recently helmed the pilot for D+’s The Mysterious Benedict Society. Riordan, Steinberg, and Bobin are also exec producing alongside Dan Shotz, Rebecca Riordan, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, and Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, and D.J. Goldberg. 20th Television is the studio in charge of production.
Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television, said the following in a statement:
“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.”
Said to be geared towards tweens, teens, and young adults, the live-action series tells the fantastical story of the eponymous 12-year-old demigod, who’s just coming to terms with his newfound supernatural powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. Now Percy must trek across America to find it and restore order to Olympus.
Karey Burke, president of 20th Television, promises that fans of the best-selling book series will not be disappointed:
“Bringing Rick Riordan’s brilliant Percy Jackson books to Disney Plus as a television series has been a mission for so many of us at this company as well as for Rick himself, and Jon, Dan, James and the excellent team they have assembled have proven to be the perfect collaborators,” said Burke. “Thanks to our friends at Disney Branded Television led by Ayo, and Disney Streaming led by Michael [Paull], this will be an adaptation for the ages, with all the excitement, action and mythology fans of the books expect and love.”
The first two books in the series, The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters, were previously brought to the screen as blockbuster movies in 2010 and 2013, respectively, with Logan Lerman in the title role. Purists infamously slammed the films for their many changes to the source material, including aging up the protagonist. Clearly, that’s not going to happen this time, with Riordan much more closely involved.
While a release window has yet to be confirmed, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is set to go into production this summer.