Indeed, the “Percy Jackson” books started as a series of bedtime stories for Riordan’s son, who struggled at school due to his dyslexia and ADHD. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the upcoming show, Riordan, who is also a classroom teacher, talked about coming up with the idea for a new Greek hero:
“A modern-day kid named Percy Jackson who, like my son, has ADHD and dyslexia and finds out that those are indicators that you may well be a demigod. My son had no trouble believing that.”
The trailer does a good job of making it clear this will be a more faithful, or at least a more encompassing adaptation, than the movies. We get a look at the show’s magical summer camp for Demigods, Camp Half-Blood, some of the monsters Percy will encounter, and the gods he will face too. Whether it is everything “Percy Jackson” fans hope for, it is at the very least a cool throwback to the time when every studio was doing kid-friendly fantasy adventure movies — remember “Narnia?”
And hey, if this series can get a second life at a proper adaptation, maybe “Eragon” fans will get justice one day, too. Back in 2022, Disney+ announced it would adapt the Christopher Paolini books for TV — though who knows if Disney will actually want to have two fantasy shows on the same platform, given how many projects the studio has killed because they are remotely similar to “Star Wars” (like “Flash Gordon”).
“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” premieres its first two episodes on December 20, 2023, on Disney+.
