In 2005, Rick Riordan, a teacher infatuated with the world of Greek myth, created a new Greek hero, first for his son, then for the world. The novel, titled “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” starred twelve-year-old demigod Percy Jackson, a blue food fiend who “didn’t want to be a half-blood.”
Enter the world of heroes and monsters, friends with goat legs and girls with Yankees hats that turn you invisible. Readers became so engulfed in the narrative of a young, loyal, sarcastic hero, and quickly one book turned to five. Riordan’s humble beginnings (which soon became worldwide bestsellers and prompted millions to fall in love with reading) continued to other series, where Roman and Greek collided in “the Heroes of Olympus,” or where Egyptian mythology met a pair of siblings, one British and one…not…in “the Kane Chronicles.” Beyond that, we have “Magnus Chase” and the “Trials of Apollo,” and while we can name the endless characters Riordan created or the endless bullies and monsters they faced, December 2023 brought us back to eighteen years ago, when our Greek hero first walked through the hidden threshold of Camp Half-Blood.
One of the most highly anticipated shows for the last four years (since the project was greenlit) arrived on people’s doorsteps via Disney + a few days before Christmas. The first two episodes, according to Deadline, became “the top Disney Branded Television premiere of all time with the first episode amassing 13.3M views globally across both Disney+ and Hulu in its first six days streaming.” The rest of the episodes, streaming weekly, bring many to their couches every Tuesday night with blue food to get them as close as they can to their demigod hero.
Senior Natalee Johnsrud shares, “I’ve been super excited for the show to come out, and I think it’s much better than the movies. I read all the books in middle school and loved them, so it’s been super nostalgic to watch the show now.” For all the people who read the books either when they came out or around that time get to fall back into that age. Junior Silas Sneath says “I was really excited for the show as I enjoyed the books a lot as a kid. The books really intrigued me because of the complex characters and the interesting yet diverse storyline that Rick Riordan created.”
Unless a behind-the-scenes enthusiast, or an avid Riordan-blog-reader, the production process is somewhat unknown to viewers, who only get glimpses at news announcement or trailer releases dropping in their YouTube recommended. Before the show was released, from Disney+ Series Premiere On Hulu – Deadline, the “trailer garnered 90M views.” But a lot goes on between the four years it takes from Riordan’s initial knock on Disney’s door (a long-going partnership, since Disney is Riordan’s publisher for the books) and when viewers can start their weekly watches.
Riordan came on the scene as an executive producer of the show, getting to be part of every step of the process. He updated fans best he could on his blog: News | Rick Riordan. Along with Riordan are producers Becky Riordan (his wife), showrunners and producers Jon Steinberg and Dan Shotz, and director James Bobin, along with an extensive cast and crew to bring it to life. Fans were disappointed in the film adaptations of the series (with only two films) because of the lack of a loyal storyline and casting of non-teenagers, giving an overall distaste from the viewers, but only added to the anticipation of the show. From TV Guide, fans were “expecting this project to be a more faithful adaptation than the 2010 and 2013 films,” and since “the new Disney+ series has Riordan’s full support, it means we’ll get to see the world depicted in the way the author intended. And thanks to Disney announcements, we’re getting regular updates from behind the scenes.”
Freshman Anna Roberts, in question to the book to screen adaptation, shares, “I think so far the show is really good in comparison to the book, and I think all of casting and locating is staying really true to the book in a lot of ways. It’s honestly not what I expected because I thought it wouldn’t be as true to the book as it is, so I was pleasantly surprised when it was! I’m hoping there are more seasons, maybe a different season for every book.”
The cast play the characters beautifully, with Walker Scobell as Percy, Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth, and Aryan Simhadri as Grover. The three, along with the rest of the cast and crew, provide regular behind the scenes updates on Instagram from set a year ago, both from their own accounts and the official Percy Jackson account.
From TV Guide, the series was the “first production to use Industrial Light & Magic’s brand new StageCraft LED stage, which features a 95-foot LED screen,” so a lot of the shots you see are brand new technology (along with practical takes and sets). The show was filmed in Vancouver, Canada, which provided the perfect landscape for a camp where satyr roam and there is a one-way connection to Olympus, via burned food offerings.
The first few episodes of the show give audiences who know the books by heart easter eggs and teasers for (crossing fingers) future seasons of the show. The first episode shows a young Percy viewing things from the Greek world before he knows he is a son of the sea god. An Automaton is seen walking down the street, covered by the mist so mortals cannot view it. From MSN, “In the Percy Jackson books, the Automatons do not appear until the final story as creations of a man named Daedalus.” We meet Daedalus in the fourth “Percy” installment, “the Battle of the Labyrinth.” These hints give viewers (and readers) hopes of future seasons, if greenlit by Disney.
Everyone who read the books in sixth grade and absorbed the Riordanverse throughout the tween and teen years, growing up with the courageous child of the Big Three, got to dive back into the series, whether Percy gave them an in to the world of reading, or was a favorite that got added to their bookshelf, spine cracked from rereading (or audiobook at the ready). Junior Nick Savage read the books back in sixth grade, so watching the show is a real nostalgia dive for him. His opinion shared here: “Pretty good, all the actors are young. I liked the books a lot.”
In an interview with msn, behind-the-scenes facts straight from Rick Riordan, Riordan shared his love of the series, aware of how important it was for him and the for the fans. When it came to casting, he said the trio “embodied the way I imagine these characters sounding and acting in my head when I write the Percy Jackson books.” At the time of writing this article, we only have five episodes out, but viewers are on the edges of their seats waiting to see the finale of the first installment unravel – from abandoned amusement parks to Ares fights to lightning bolts and councils of Olympus. Riordan shares, “The fifth episode, I am particularly fond of because it’s where we meet Ares, and we have the water ride. I think I like that one because by that point in the series, our actors had really come together as a team, not only on screen, but also off screen, and they were cooking. I mean, they knew each other so well, they were getting into their parts. They knew what they were doing. I think the series gets even better. In Episode 5, you really see it. All three of the kids, they BRING IT.”
The series showed up in style with a premier in New York at the MET. Greek heroes posing for pictures in front of their statue companions. Whether it be an Olivia Rodrigo song in the first episode or owls showing up in shots at Camp Half-Blood (encouragement from Athena?) or wholesome interviews with the cast, you can tell why “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” became the biggest television premier Disney + has ever seen. A show made by the gods, for all the demigods out there waiting to see the trajectory of Seaweed Brain and Wise Girl escalate past the 600th floor.
