The trailer for the long awaited Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series dropped one month ago, but the fan excitement has not died down. And with another recent trailer, it’s only arisen.
The first teaser for the series dropped on 18 August (the titular character’s birthday in the books). And after two poorly received films in 2010 and 2013 starring Logan Lerman, the YA book series has hope at last for a faithful adaptation. With the series author Rick Riordan being involved as co-writer and co-producer (alongside Jon Steinberg), the Disney+ production holds a lot of potential.
The most recent trailer came out at the end of September, and gave us a look at what’s to come in the series, with glimpses of elemental scenes from the the first book (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief), set to a cover of ‘Riptide’—a nice reference for book fans who know riptide is also the name of Percy’s sword.
The series is adapted from the young-adult five-book adventure-fantasy series by Rick Riordan, with the eight-episode first season following the first instalment, ‘Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief’. It introduces the world of Percy, who finds out he is the son of one of the most powerful greek gods, Poseidon, and is enrolled in Camp Half Blood, a haven for the children of gods to protect themselves from monsters. Until the King of the Gods, Zeus, accuses Percy of stealing his master thunder bolt. The series will only adapt the five books, although Riordan is set to release a new standalone Percy Jackson novel, The Chalice of the Gods on September 26.
Walker Scobell stars as the titular 12-year-old demigod, with Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase and Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood. With popular fancasts becoming a realityーincluding Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysusーthe series received praise for its casting, especially its hiring of less well-known child actors for the main trio. It’s been confirmed, however, Logan Lerman, who starred as the lead in the film franchise back in the 2010s, will not return for the TV series despite speculation and fan-appeal.
The author has been active in promoting the series, keeping fans up to date with the production through blog posts, with announcements that the series was set to finish filming season one in December 2022 or January 2023, likely to air in early 2024.
Lucky for us, the series will premiere its first two episodes on the 20 December on Disney+, and then the show will air weekly thereafter on Wednesday.
Words by Catarina Vicente
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