Many fans of the book series, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” were displeased with the movie adaptation in 2010. 20th Century Studios attempted to remake the first book in the Percy Jackson series, “The Lightning Thief” and the second, “The Sea of Monsters.” The movie’s main characters were played by Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario and Brandon T. Jackson. The average rating for “The Lightning Thief” movie on Google is 2.6 stars, which is below the average for most movies.
“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is a five book young adult series written by Rick Riordon. It follows the story of Percy Jackson, a 12 year old boy who lives with ADHD and dyslexia. He constantly is changing schools until one day when he is attacked by an ancient Greek monster. Soon after, he finds out that he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon.
When a book is being adapted into a movie, the author is often largely involved in the production of the movie. The Percy Jackson production barely included the input of Riordan, who feared that the movie would not accurately depict the story of Percy.
The movie plot felt rushed and the characters had no time to develop meaningful relationships, which was a large part of the books. This makes it so things that happen in the movies do not make sense for the character development and the development of character relationships within the movie. For example, Percy himself took a few books to discover how powerful he had become, but in the movie he gained his power very quickly, taking away from part of his personal journey.
In the film adaptation, one of the complaints from fans was how mistreated and unused Annabeth Chase was. The books portrayAnnabeth as a strong and capable character who is very helpful and supports Percy throughout his quest. In the movie, Annabeth is merely a companion who does not provide much help, and the actress did not embody the identity of Annabeth well.
Although the movies were a disappointment, Disney+ announced that they are making a complete remake of the books into a TV series with new actors and a new storyline in . Riordon himself revealed that he was a large part of the production process. The first episode of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is set to release on December 20, 2023.