Percy Jackson creator Rick Riordan is happy with the Disney+ series
It’s been a tumultuous decade, but Rick Riordan is finally everything is back At Percy Jackson and Hollywood. The creator of the popular book series was famously unimpressed with how Fox treated his characters in the two 2010 film adaptations Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and 2013 Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Sea of Monsters. But now he is much more confident Disney pleases him and the fans with the new Disney+ streaming series Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
“After the film experience, I basically wrote off Hollywood for a long, long time,” Riordan said diversity. “I didn’t really want to have anything to do with the film industry. For many years I said, “I don’t want to get involved.” I don’t want to think about other adjustments. I’m done.’ But when it became clear that something would happen to me or without me, I had a long chat with Becky, my wife. We said, ‘Well, if something were to happen, it’s probably best to try again.'”
The Disney+ series, which premieres on December 20th with two episodes, reportedly costs as much as The Mandalorian (up to $15 million per episode) and was co-developed with Riordan. One of the biggest changes is that Percy and his friends will be age-appropriate this time around. The films star 20-year-olds as young teenagers – but now real teenagers are playing the roles.
“Now, after going through the production process, I completely understand why they did that. “It’s a lot easier to work with older actors,” Riordan said, but he’s glad the show didn’t do that. “Once you have older teenagers, the dynamic is completely different. You lose so much of the wonder. A middle grader’s magic doesn’t work the same way. There’s a jaded teenage quality.” Riordan believes the new approach (he calls the new cast “perfect”) is much more in line with his intentions for the multi-book series and will satisfy fans who are dissatisfied with the way the films handle the story dealt with, were frustrated. And if the show is a success, the plan is to adapt as many of Riordan’s books as possible.
“We want them all,” Karey Burke, president of Disney’s 20th Television, told Variety. “Despite his previous film experience, he is a broad-minded thinker about his work. He doesn’t have a rigid interpretation of it. The other series he created that live in this world are all part of our universe that we can adapt.”
You can read much, much more about the world of Percy Jackson, including the cast, chemistry between the leads, and more. over at Variety. The piece definitely piqued my interest in the show. Disney seems to be treating it with the same respect and scope as its Marvel and Lucasfilm shows. That says a lot.
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