Percy Jackson Author Rick Riordan Reclaims His Hero's Journey With Disney+ Series

In the writers room for Disney+'s new series Percy Jackson and The Olympians, there was no one more adventurous than Rick and Becky Riordan.

Rick's beloved book series about a teenager who discovers he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon has a devoted fan base that, like its young hero, would go to the ends of the mythical world to defend this story. But with the sprawling canvas of an eight-episode series, the Riordans are ready to go beyond the page.

"Dan (Shotz), one of our producers, likes to (tell the writers they) need to be book specific, but then he laughs about how the Riordans are more adventurous about this than anyone," Becky tells TV Guide. "We did have a lot of fun making the universe a little bit broader and getting different perspectives."

The series, premiering with two episodes on Dec. 20, stars Walker Scobell as Percy, an outcast who finds friends and enemies among the teenage demigods of Camp Half-Blood. But before he can even settle in, Percy sets out with his half-satyr protector Grover (Aryan Simhadri) and Athena's daughter Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) on a quest to find the stolen lightning bolt of Zeus.

The series arrives more than a decade after 20th Century Fox adapted the first two of Riordan's books into movies led by Logan Lerman as Percy — 2010's The Lightning Thief and 2013's Sea of Monsters. Despite their popularity, Riordan never got past the scripts.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Review: Disney Adaptation Is a Fun but Lightweight Coming-of-Age Fantasy

"I consciously never saw them," Rick says. "I read the scripts and I knew that if I ever saw them, they would break my heart. While they may be fine as movies, as adaptations, they fail. They are not Percy Jackson."

His dissatisfaction with the films made the pitch meeting that he and Becky had with Disney even more important. In their minds, there was no better place to make a Percy Jackson series — and the time was now. The movies had been produced by Fox, which was acquired by Disney in 2019. Coincidentally, the Mouse House also has its own publishing arm, under which Riordan's series is published through the Hyperion Books imprint. The arrival of Disney+ gave the Riordans a chance to bring everything full circle.

"The opportunity is something we had to kind of create," Rick says. "We had to go out and talk to folks, and connect the dots. As we like to say, this was an opportunity to bring Percy Jackson home to Disney."

It wasn't easy though. "We had to do a lot of teaching," says Becky, who serves as an executive producer on the series. "We had to explain what is Percy Jackson and why it should be done again."

The questions were valid, but the Riordans made a compelling case that a second adaptation wasn't just about rewriting Percy Jackson's screen history. It was about not repeating it.

"I think the motive for us was that we felt, at some point, it would be revisited with or without us," Becky says. "We knew it would be better for us to be involved so we could help guide it and make it something that would appeal to general viewers, yes, and also hardcore fans who love the books."

The series is packed with nods to the books for longtime readers, including episode titles pulled directly from the pages. But as an eight-episode series, the Riordans encouraged the creative team and writers to expand beyond what viewers of the movies and even readers of the book know. The six books are told from Percy's perspective, limiting the stories Rick could include. But now fans will finally get their wish to fill in the blanks about the other figures in the hero's life, right down to where he came from.

"Fans have, for years, asked what happened with Sally (Percy's mother) and Poseidon," Rick says. "What's their backstory? And they want to know what exactly is Grover doing when Percy's not around? Does he have friends at camp? Does he hang around with other satyrs? So these are questions we actually get to answer for the first time on screen."

Viewers can expect Percy and his friends to also cross paths with plenty of familiar faces as they go in search of the lightning bolt and the person who swiped it. Among the people playing Olympian gods along their path are Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes, Jay Duplass as Hades, Timothy Omundson as Hephaestus, Lance Reddick as Zeus, and Toby Stephens as Percy's father, Poseidon. Becky specifically singles out a diner scene between Grover and the god Ares (Adam Copeland aka WWE's Edge) as a "beautiful" exploration of the two characters fans think they know.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Disney+ Cast, Release Date, Trailer, and Everything We Know So Far

But don't expect to see too much of the gods. The Riordans caution the series is meant to feel as grounded as possible, despite its god-level stakes. Therefore, the inevitable appearance of the gods needs to linger over the young heroes' journey like a threat, rather than a promise.

"The gods have to be a looming presence in the background," Rick says. "You don't want to see too much of them or get used to them. When you do see them, it should be godly. And I think the actors we have really bring it."

For more than a decade, Rick has never held back about his distaste for the first major attempt to adapt his books. But what he can assure fans on the eve of the next era of Percy Jackson's saga is that they will recognize their favorite characters on screen.

"I wanted to do this as a tribute to the kids who are reading the books now or grew up reading them," he says. "It has that spirit. It has the Percy Jackson DNA."

Percy Jackson & The Olympians premieres Dec. 20 on Disney+.