Given the popularity of the source material, by rights the Percy Jackson film series should have been a major hit when it kicked off at the beginning of the decade. While the two movies performed solidly and have their fans, there ultimately wasn’t enough of a call to make any further installments. In this age of big budget streaming television, though, the franchise looks set to be relaunched on the small screen. And this time, it’ll be closer to the original books by Rick Riordan.
A few months ago, We Got This Covered brought you the news that a Percy Jackson TV series was in the works and that it would act as a complete reboot. Now, our sources – the same ones who revealed that Bill Murray was returning for Ghostbusters 3 and that a new Ace Ventura movie is in the works, which trusted insider Daniel Richtman has recently corroborated – are telling us that the first season of the show will be based off Riordan’s first installment in the series, The Lightning Thief. And in contrast to the 2010 movie version, directed by Harry Potter‘s Chris Columbus, it’ll be much more faithful to the novel.
In particular, we’re told that the leads will be more age-appropriate, with 12-year-old teens expected to be cast as Percy and his pals, Annabeth and Grover. The studio is likely to opt for unknown young actors, too. This marks a change from the films, in which Logan Lerman played the title role. He was already 18 when the first movie released and co-star Alexandra Daddario was even older at 23.
From what we understand, the Percy Jackson TV show is likely headed to Disney Plus and if it’s successful, it should spawn several seasons, as there are five books in The Olympians series. Riordan has also penned various other novels that expand the shared universe. So, if Disney plays its cards right, it could even get a few spinoffs out of this. No doubt they’re hoping for it to be their answer to Amazon’s Lord of the Rings and Netflix’s Chronicles of Narnia.
