The author of the Percy Jackson book series, Rick Riordan, has shared an update on the cast of the Percy Jackson TV series for streaming service Disney Plus. A new adaptation of Riordan’s hugely popular Percy Jackson book series has been in the works now for several years, and has begun filming.
The new fantasy series is being made for Disney Plus, and stars Walker Scobell as the young demigod Percy Jackson. The TV series has a short teaser trailer, and will be released in 2024. It’s expected that the show will have several seasons, with each season covering one of the books, just as each of the Harry Potter movies was a direct adaption of a single Harry Potter book.
However, unlike the Harry potter adventure movies, the new Percy Jackson series will have to contend with the fact that the novels have already had an attempted adaptation. The Percy Jackson movies, starting Logan Lerman, were praised for their casting but suffered from weak scripts and diminishing box office results. However, while the fantasy movies ended up being a flop, there was a lot of love among Percy Jackson fans for Logan Lerman’s version of the demigod in particular.
This has led to some fans getting excited about the potential for Logan Lerman to star in the series, not as Percy Jackson, but in a new role as a different character. Many think that would be a fun call-back to the movies, but Riordan apparently disagrees.
Writing on his personal website about the situation, the author has said “To answer another question I get a lot, even being isolated from social media: What about actors from the original movie adaptations? The answer should not surprise you if you’ve read anything I’ve said about the movies over the last decade, but I’ll say this again: A lot of wonderful, talented actors were involved in those movies.”
He continued “I have been quite open about my feelings concerning the adaptations, but that is no fault of the actors, whom I have enjoyed watching in many other great screen productions. That said, the whole point of me being involved in the TV show is to make sure this is a completely different production and a fresh start for Percy Jackson. That means an entirely new cast putting their own spin on the characters, and it’s important for the cast and crew that they have a clean slate to work from. Because of that, there will be no crossover casting between the movies and the new TV show. This must be and will be its own thing.”
That’s all very, very definitive. Of course, even if there were to be former actors appearing on the series Riordan wouldn’t want to spoil it and would likley deny it, à la Andrew Garfield in the most recent Spider-Man movie. However, this makes it sound like there really will be no former members of the Percy Jackson cast joining the series. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is entirely down to you.