Percy Jackson TV Series

The new Percy Jackson series will reset the franchise and reboot the story with a new cast of characters led by Walker Scobell.

Percy Jackson Series Cast News

Percy Jackson

Walker Scobell

news

Annabeth

Leah Sava Jeffries

Grover

Aryan Simhadri

Sally Jackson

Virginia Kull

Dionysus

Jason Mantzoukas 

Chiron

Glynn Turman 

The Percy Jackson TV series is on its way. With the bigger fantasy franchises, especially in popular book series, fans are right to get excited when something is adapted to the big or small screen. It’s a chance to see someone else’s interpretation of the characters and settings they’ve held in the mind’s eye for so long.

And sometimes a franchise will take a couple of different shots at it before getting it right. That’s the case with the upcoming Percy Jackson TV series that will follow a not-so-successful movie franchise for the titular character.

This new series will offer a chance for a reset and the ability to bring the character and story in a new way for fans of the franchise. Let’s check out everything we know about the Percy Jackson TV series. 

PERCY JACKSON WAS CREATED BY RICK RIORDAN

The character of Percy Jackson was first introduced in the book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan which was the introductory book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians franchise. The story follows Percy who, at least at the beginning, is on the typical hero’s journey.

While on a school trip he finds out that there is a secret world out there, one that he is connected to in that he is the son of a Greek god. It opens up a world in which all the figures of Greek mythology, for better or worse, are alive and well and operating in the United States. 

Percy sets up some shop at Camp Half-Blood (the Hogwarts of this world) and meets a number of other kids who have been sired by the gods with humans. It begins a winding tale in which we meet folks from all over the mythological spectrum. Some key characters along with Percy are his close friends Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase. Both have secrets (and some powers) of their own and are likely to be major components in this new series. 

WALKER SCOBELL IS PERCY JACKSON

The Percy Jackson TV series got a definite jolt right away with its casting, marking one of the first big announcements since it was let out that the franchise was getting another adaptation. Walker Scobell was cast in the lead back in early April, a sign that the young actor’s star is most definitely on the rise.

This casting was coming off Scobell’s breakout (and really first) role in the Netflix original The Adam Project. In it, Scobell played Adam Reed, the young version of Ryan Reynolds’s character who has time traveled from the future to right a wrong from his past. Scobell was excellent in the role, holding his own with Reynolds on screen and it was pretty clear that he was headed for even bigger and better things. 

Joining Scobell will be Aryan Simhadri, who will play Percy’s best friend and protector, Grover Underwood. Grover also happens to be a satyr. Leah Sava Jeffries joins the cast as Annabeth Chase, daughter of the Greek goddess Athena.

Also joining the cast will be Charlie Bushnell as Luke Castellan, Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson, Glynn Turman as Chiron, Timm Sharp as Gabe Ugliano, and Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse LaRue. There are a couple of names you may be familiar with. Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) is on board as Mrs. Dodds/Alecto while Jason Mantzoucas (The League, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) will play Dionysus. 

AUTHOR RICK RIORDAN IS WORKING DIRECTLY WITH THIS SERIES

There is some more good news on the development of this Percy Jackson TV series in that author Rick Riordan is heavily involved with the process. This hadn’t necessarily been the case on the first iteration. Riordan shared the good news last summer on Twitter that both be and his wife Becky were going to be working closely with Disney+. 

And there are some other creatives attached that could really give this series a boost. The showrunners for the series will be Jon Steinberg and Dan Shotz. The two have worked on a number of other projects together including co-creating Jericho, which ran for four seasons on CBS. They also worked on Black Sails on Starz. Each has a number of other writing and producing credits and lends a solid resume to what they will bring to this new series.  

PERCY JACKSON HAS BEEN IN TWO MOVIES BEFORE THIS

This isn’t the first time this franchise has gotten a live-action adaptation. The Percy Jackson TV series won’t have been the first crack at bringing this story to life. That happened back in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, the 2010 move from Christopher Columbus. It followed the events of the first book of the series and starred Logan Lerman in the lead role. Alexandra Daddario and Brandon T. Jackson played Annabeth and Grover respectively.  

The movie did fine enough at the box office, scoring $226 million worldwide on its $95 million cost. But considering the popularity of the book series and the thought that this would draw legions of readers out to the theaters to see the adaptation, the box office numbers were still something of a disappointment. 

There was a follow-up movie, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters three years later, but that one scored even worse with the ticket sales, earning *just* $200 million on the $90 million budget. And neither performed all that well with critics either.

The first one is sitting at 49% on Rotten Tomatoes with the second at 42%. Between lackluster results in the dollar sign department and critics giving it a collective shrug, the planned third movie in the franchise stalled out and was never made. A decade later, this relative underperformance is what set the stage for the Percy Jackson TV series. 

THE PERCY JACKSON SERIES WILL BE ON DISNEY+

While the timeline isn’t set yet, as stated, this series is coming to Disney+ and probably not until the summer of 2023, if not later. With the Mouse House now calling the shots, one has to think we are going to get a better version in a television series than what happened on the big screen.

And seeing as how there is a wealth of source material to cover, confining it to one-and-done movies might not have been the best plan to start. Of course, a decade ago was a different world when it came to content, the streaming wars hadn’t yet heated up.

But now, with platforms all seeking to put out big television productions, a Percy Jackson TV series could be perfect for the streamer. After all, there are five total books in the series and tons of supplemental works as well. This could be something that lives on Disney+ for many, many years.

Disney has offered up a teaser trailer, which you can see below, that will show you just what is waiting for Percy. We’ll be updating news on the Percy Jackson TV series as it comes out.