The fandoms of Percy Jackson and Harry Potter have traded quips online, following reports that the latter franchise will receive a reboot on HBO. Earlier today, it was reported that Warner Bros. Discovery is currently in talks to produce a television adaptation of Harry Potter, with each season based on one of J.K. Rowling’s seven entries in the uber-popular fantasy series.
While the status of the Harry Potter reboot remains unconfirmed — Rowling is reportedly yet to sign off on the project — fans of fellow fantasy series Percy Jackson were quick to take umbrage with the news, especially since a reboot of their franchise has already been announced. “[Percy Jackson] did it first,” one user wrote, with another quipping that the series “washes Harry Potter in every possible category.”
Taking particular aim at the timing of the Harry Potter announcement — which comes just weeks after the first look images for the Percy Jackson reboot were revealed — fans remarked that Potter execs “saw Percy Jackson was getting ready… and had to come up with something quick.” Other fans were less coy in their barbs, sharing Harry Potter spoilers and writing that “no one cares” about a return to Hogwarts.
“Dumbledore dies,” one user wrote. “Anyway, Disney is making a Percy Jackson TV series for Disney+.” Another exclaimed: “We don’t give a f**k it’s Percy Jackson’s time to shine.” Percy Jackson fans were elsewhere critical of the need for a Harry Potter reboot in the first place, with one user suggesting that “Percy Jackson needed a reboot because the films were trash, [while] Harry Potter did not.”
News of a Percy Jackson reboot titled Percy Jackson and the Olympians first emerged in 2019, with Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz announced as showrunners. Since then, the spinoff has enlisted a cast that includes Walker Scobell as the titular demigod son, as well as Jason Gray-Stanford, Leah Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri. The series — which will premiere on Disney Plus in 2024 — will reportedly remain faithful to its original source material.
If green lit, the Harry Potter reboot would add to an increasing catalog of Hogwarts-adjacent spinoffs, following the Fantastic Beasts series which ran from 2016 to 2022. Meanwhile, in what would certainly wage a three-way war if it weren’t for its imminent release, fellow young adult series The Hunger Games is set to receive its own prequel treatment with the premiere of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes later this year.
