Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson books, made a trip to Disney on Thursday, confirming that he’s having meetings with the studio about possibly revitalizing the franchise on Disney Plus, which We Got This Covered told you was happening several months ago.
Taking to Twitter, the writer shared the following yesterday:
Had some good meetings at Disney today. Way too early to know what if anything might happen, but I will keep at it!
Now that Fox has been bought by the Mouse House, it seems the studio is looking at their new properties to see what could be financially viable. And it appears Percy Jackson has some potential.
Remember the YA craze? It started with Twilight and after that came The Hunger Games, which made even more money. For the next seven years or so, there was a consistent stream of young adult adaptations in multiple genres. Whether it’s schmaltzy teenage romances like The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns or sci-fi with Divergent and The Maze Runner, studios were taking full advantage of the fad.
Another one of those series that lasted a few movies was Percy Jackson. Sort of a Harry Potter knock-off, the franchise followed the titular character as he discovers that he’s the descendant of a Greek god who must stop an on-going war between other gods.
The first film was directed by Chris Columbus and starred Logan Lerman and Alexandra Daddario. The movie was a modest success, grossing more than $223 million worldwide on a budget just under $100 million. Three years later we got a sequel no one was asking for and surprise surprise, it made less. Not a lot less. But enough for Fox to pull the plug on any further installments.
But now it seems that the property is about to make a comeback and from what we’ve heard, the reboot would be more faithful to Riordan’s books than the films were. And given that the author is holding up a Disney Plus pin in the photo he shared along with the Tweet, it all but confirms that the new adaptation will be a TV show, as we first told you back in September.
That’d certainly make sense, too. Right now Disney Plus has The Mandalorian as its flagship series on the streaming platform, but something a little more niche but still with a decent following could definitely help draw in even more viewers. Not to mention that the demand for a new take on Percy Jackson is definitely out there.