Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians book series has been beloved by millions of book readers for two decades now. So it's surprising that the whole story has yet to be successfully adapted for a live-action medium. Hollywood tried with the 2010 and 2013 movies starring Logan Lerman and Alexandra Daddario, but they ultimately failed. With the Disney+ TV show adaptation just a couple of months away from premiering, Riordan reflected on writing off Hollywood after the films and revealed the one creative change from the flicks he “totally” gets now.
The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series has been a long time coming, and Rick Riordan has played a key role in its development. The veteran scribe, who also wrote the pilot episode of the 2023 TV schedule entry with Black Sails creator Jon Steinberg, seems to enjoy the television medium. His dive into the world of cinema years ago wasn't all that pleasant, by the sounds of it. He summed up those two movies and the aftermath with these sentiments:
After the movie experience, I basically wrote off Hollywood for a long, long time. I really didn’t want to have anything to do with the film industry. There were many years of me saying, ‘I don’t want to engage. I don’t want to think about other adaptations. I’m done.’ But when it started to become clear that something was going to happen with me or without me, I had a long talk with Becky, my wife. We said, ‘Well, if something’s going to happen, it’s probably best to give it one more shot.
Fans didn’t see more Percy Jackson movies due to the failure of the 20th Century Fox films and, with that, the novelist became jaded about teaming with a studio for another book-to-screen adaptation. Ultimately, when many of Fox's assets were acquired by The Walt Disney Company, conversations about a new take on the property began, with Rick Riordan choosing to take part in them. After tons of meetings with “many different branches of the Disney conglomerate” he convinced the House of Mouse to make Percy Jackson a TV series. And as an executive producer on the show, he vowed to ensure this production would be “more faithful to the source material.”
One of the biggest ways the series, which wrapped filming in February, falls more in line with the source has to do with the core ensemble of young actors. When the movie tapped older actors to play characters he'd written as twelve-year-olds, the author was outspoken about his disagreement with the decision -- as were fans of the books. One's viewpoint can change over time, though. While the Disney+ Percy Jackson series' cast is led by actors age appropriate with the books, Riordan admitted to Variety that he can understand why the films went in the opposite direction:
Now, having been through the production process, I totally get why they did that. It’s much easier to work with older actors. [Still] once you have older teens, it’s a completely different dynamic. You lose so much of the wonder. The magic of being a middle grader doesn’t come across the same way. There’s a jaded teenage quality.
There is definitely a distinct dynamic when it comes to telling stories with teenagers. Just imagine how different the Harry Potter movies would've been had Daniel Radcliffe and co. not been younger when they starting playing their famous roles. It may be easier for filmmakers to work with older actors from a production standpoint, but one also has to think about what works best for the story being told.
While he gets why the execs made the casting decisions now that he's been on the other side of it, Rick Riordan is excited to see his vision realized as intended. Check out the trailer for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians and grab a Disney+ subscription ahead of the show's highly anticipated premiere on December 20. You can also stream those first two films with the aforementioned membership.
