The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is coming to Disney Plus this December, but hold on a second - is the series a spinoff, remake, or reboot of the franchise?
Almost everything in Hollywood right now appears to have been remade or rebooted and it's been a recurring theme for quite some time now, and the upcoming Percy Jackson series is honestly no different.
However, what makes the series stand out is because novel series author Rick Riordan is determined to take back what his initial adaptations should have been. First and foremost, though, let's get the main thing straight here.
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Is Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series a Spinoff, Remake, or Reboot?
The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is essentially supposed to start the franchise from scratch, with the possibility of having more than one season, and here's why.
Rick Riordan has made it abundantly clear that he was utterly disappointed with how the previous two Percy Jackson movies were made. They weren't cohesive to the original source material, aka Riordan's novel series.
Apart from this, while the Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief movie did well, with a gross of $226.4M at the global box office, the sequel, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters did worse, only bringing in $199M.
While success should always be a part of making a franchise come to life, Riordan's concern for his adaptations was different. In an old interview with Entertainment Weekly, the author shared his own frustrations during the production of it:
"I judge them from having read the scripts because I care most about the story. I certainly have nothing against the very talented actors. Not their fault. I'm just sorry that they got dragged into that mess. To you guys, it's a couple of hours' entertainment. To me, it's my life's work going through a meat grinder, when I pleaded them not to do it."
Fortunately, for Riordan, since Disney's acquisition of his novels back in 2017, chances of the Percy Jackson reboot coming true were looking pretty good, and now, comes the series this December 20th on the streamer with its first season containing eight episodes long.
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Here's How the Percy Jackson Reboot Will Be Better Than the Movies
Considering how long the Percy Jackson novel series ran for, it's difficult to imagine fitting all of his adventures as a demigod could possibly fit into a simple two-hour film. So, instead, a Disney Plus series was ordered on the streamer.
Apart from hiring Walker Scobell, Leah Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri as Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood for the reboot, the kids are also aged closer to the original characters in the books.
They were all 12-year-old demigods who resided at Camp Half-Blood, with Scobell and Jeffries being at age 14, while Simhadri is 17 years old.
But most importantly, the series is being held close to Rick Riordan's directions and scripts, which would ensure that the adaptation would be accurately depicted.
While its total budget has yet to be revealed, a new report indicated that the Percy Jackson reboot is a high-budget project for Disney that may cost even more than multiple Star Wars and MCU series!
This should keep fans' expectations on the edge, seeing as the series has a lot more to work with now than its predecessor.
In the meantime, you can check out the official synopsis of what the Disney Plus show will be about below:
Based on Disney Hyperion's best-selling book series by award-winning Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a Disney+ Original series that tells the fantastical story of a 12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson, who's just coming to terms with his newfound divine powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. With help from his friends, Grover and Annabeth, Percy must embark on an adventure of a lifetime to find it and restore order to Olympus.
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