‘Percy Jackson’ Streaming Series Being Developed By Disney Plus
Percy Jackson, the star of a series of bestselling fantasy novels and two feature films, may be headed for millions of homes in a new iteration on Disney Plus, Deadline reported.
The news comes following a Twitter campaign started by Becky Riordan, wife of series creator Rick Riordan. The campaign centered around the hashtag “DisneyAdaptPercyJackson.” This hashtag was also used by Rick Riordan in December, as he was tweeting about meetings with Disney regarding the series.
Riordan and his wife made the news official in a video announcement posted to Twitter. Though the clip was only 18 seconds long, Riordan promised there would be “more later.”
As of this writing, the announcement has been liked more than 90,000 times and retweeted more than 32,000 times. Fans have been ecstatic and full of gratitude about the news on social media.
“AHHHHHH THIS IS SO EXCITING,” one fan wrote.
“THANK YOU FOR WORKING SO HARD,” a second follower remarked.
The book series, known in full as Percy Jackson & the Olympians, chronicles the adventures of a teenage boy who learns he has Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, as an ancestor. Five books have been published in the adventure-filled series: The Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian.
Two Percy Jackson films have been released theatrically. The Lightning Thief, directed by Harry Potter veteran Chris Columbus, grossed $226 million worldwide in 2010. Sea of Monsters, directed by Thor Freudenthal, was released in 2013. It came just shy of earning $200 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. Both of the films starred Logan Lerman, who now stars in Amazon’s crime series Hunters, as the titular Percy Jackson.
So far, there’s no word about who will be cast as Jackson or any of the supporting characters — such as his love interest, Annabeth Chase, or best friend, satyr Grover Underwood. However, in a later tweet, Riordan promised that he and his wife would be personally involved “in every aspect of the show.”
The series will dedicate a season to each book in the series, beginning with The Lightning Thief. This should allow for more development of certain characters and plotlines as compared to the films, which both came in at under two hours in length.
Deadline indicates that Fox 21 Television Studios will be handling production. The films were distributed by 20th Century Fox, which has since been acquired by Disney.
The Percy Jackson books have been published in 42 different languages. Aside from the novels, other works, including graphic novels and short stories, have also been released.
