You could practically hear the collective sigh of relief breathed by fans all over the globe when news broke that Disney will be adapting Percy Jackson and the Olympians into a streaming series and author Rick Riordan will be working alongside them to make sure the adaptation is faithful. After all, though we’ve seen the property brought to life before, Fox didn’t exactly do a good job when they were in charge, and Riordan hasn’t been afraid to make his thoughts on their efforts known in the past.
Now, he’s speaking up again, taking to Twitter to reveal that he’s never seen the Fox films and has no desire to watch them, explaining that what the studio did made him feel like his life’s work was going through a meat grinder. Ouch.
https://twitter.com/rickriordan/status/1269956493585068034
https://twitter.com/rickriordan/status/1269960432707604483
As fans will know, both The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters were brought to the big screen in 2010 and 2013, respectively. However, both were met with middling receptions by critics and general audiences, and the numerous liberties taken angered and upset a lot of people. In fact, many accused Fox of not caring how faithful the adaptations were, so long as they could cash in on the YA craze going on back then.
With any luck, though, now that Riordan is firmly on board, this new Percy Jackson series will properly bring the Half-Blood and his world to life and be received a whole lot better than the movies were. Granted, we still don’t know much about what Disney has planned, but you have to imagine they’re well aware of the backlash against the Fox films and will be looking to rectify the mistakes made in the past. At least, we hope.