After nearly 15 years, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” author Rick Riordan is out with a new book centered on the original core trio of Percy, Annabeth and Grover, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Chalice of the Gods.” But, will this new set of adventures make it into the upcoming Disney+ series? Well, for Riordan, it’s too soon to say — but he’s not opposed to it.
“That is just too far down the horizon to know the answer to. I don’t know,” he told TheWrap at his Chicago book tour stop on Sunday. “I mean, right now we’re just focusing on season one. And if it does well, who knows? You know, the kids are totally excited. Even after all the work they’ve done, they’re still really excited to get back to it, so I know they’re looking forward to whatever is going to come and we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Though Riordan has expanded the world of Percy Jackson in other books, “Chalice of the Gods” marks the first novel in the franchise to be from Percy’s point of view since “The Last Olympian” back in 2009. At this point, Percy is a senior in high school, hoping to get a recommendation letter from the gods for New Rome University.
The Disney+ series begins with the first book in the series, “The Lightning Thief,” in which Percy is just 12 years old. Last year, Riordan told TheWrap that the idea for the show is to tackle one book per season, and he’s crossing his fingers they get to tell the complete story.
“I mean, all I can say is, I would consider a major victory if we were able to get five good seasons of television,” he said. “These days, that’s enough of a rare success. If we’re able to capture the whole Percy Jackson original series and five seasons of television, that’s awesome. And anything after that would be gravy.”
The series stars Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri as Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood respectively, as they set out on a quest to recover Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt.
Riordan wrote the first two episodes of the series, set to premiere on December 20, with Jon Steinberg, and James Bobin directed them. Steinberg and Dan Shotz serve as executive producers alongside Riordan and his wife, Becky. Also EPs on the project are The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Bert Salke, The Gotham Group’s Jeremy Bell and D.J. Goldberg, James Bobin, Jim Rowe, Monica Owusu-Breen, Anders Engström and Jet Wilkinson.
“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” premieres on Disney+ on December 20.