The news broke yesterday that Rick Riordan’s fantasy series Percy Jackson and the Olympians is being adapted into a series for Disney+, and as you can imagine, the fans who have spent the last decade and a half loving the books have not been shy in sharing their excitement at the development.
Readers have been eager for a long time to see the novels of their youth faithfully brought to life, and social media exploded in breathless declarations of joy and all caps screaming.
https://twitter.com/MartelleCaleb/status/1261177188335800320
https://twitter.com/natjiah/status/1261100459890098178
https://twitter.com/lys7tear/status/1261172250574589952
Avatar the Last Airbender series and a Percy Jackson series…bitch I win pic.twitter.com/xlA3vrsM08
— Conner (@Conner_Bonner) May 15, 2020
this is how i’m sleeping tonight knowing we’re getting an accurate percy jackson series adaptation pic.twitter.com/uI7DTxonfJ
— maddy (@scodelaxio) May 15, 2020
https://twitter.com/LouisseCarreon/status/1261143293208887296
https://twitter.com/siighyoana/status/1261178587438362625
me @ disney plus regarding the new percy jackson series: pic.twitter.com/SE3qIjtA4Q
— aly | svt skz aus📌 (@loevrgh) May 15, 2020
no one:
all the percy jackson fans who’ve been closeted for the past five and a half years now that the disney show has been announced: pic.twitter.com/KhZ9kJpoR1— Phoaquin Joenix (@__oligator) May 15, 2020
Rick Riordan: so pjo will be in disney pl-
Whole Percy Jackson fandom pic.twitter.com/9KVLm3C4JS
— sahog na may pancit (@BUQUELAFEA) May 15, 2020
All the fuckin years of rereading #PercyJackson books and fanfiction DESPERATE for new content and Rick comes traipsing along and DROPS THE FUCKIN DISNEY+ ADAPTATION ON US LIKE ITS NOTHING!
SIR.
SIR!!!
DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY FICS IVE READ. COUNTLESS!! 2020 HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN SAVED pic.twitter.com/fwK4XP5kkC— Janar (@water_glider) May 15, 2020
so 2020 might be ass but at least we’re getting the percy jackson series!!!! pic.twitter.com/6lj1nztXbY
— cesca (@francescadch) May 15, 2020
https://twitter.com/flickrinmymind/status/1261175134729240576
Okay but wHO DO I HYPE UP WITH ABOUT THIS ADAPTATION !!!!!
Feeling like I'm 12 again😭😭#PercyJacksonDisneyPlus #PercyJackson pic.twitter.com/PKmd7Jh1W7— Wazeelaa (@alil_extra) May 15, 2020
The Percy Jackson series follows the adventures of a number of teenage demigods and specifically, the eponymous son of the sea god Poseidon and his friends Grover the satyr and Annabeth, daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war.
Of course, the books have been adapted before as movies, with the first two novels, The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters, being brought to the big screen in 2010 and 2013, respectively. Neither was much of a runaway success though, met with middling receptions by critics and general audiences, and disappointment from existing fans by the numerous liberties taken, which was due to their being produced at a time when practically every popular YA novel saga was being cynically optioned in the hope of taking the throne to be imminently vacated by the concluding Harry Potter series, without much care in how faithful the adaptations actually were so long as they made money.
We can only hope that by keeping this in mind – and also taking into account the utter mauling that Artemis Fowl is going to receive upon its release when the extent of how little it follows its source material is made even more apparent than the trailers have shown us – those behind this version of the adventures of Percy Jackson will properly bring the Half-Blood and his world to life and the apoplectic excitement being displayed will ultimately be warranted.