Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 in Production

Television

Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians was announced at the 2024 D23 Expo and is currently in production, with a release date of 2025 on the streaming platform Disney+. A teaser trailer that is approximately fifty-seven seconds long was released. Previously, there was a 2010 film of the same name starring Logan Lerman as Percy; however, it did not receive much critical acclaim or praise amongst fans of the book series. 

Set in the 2000s, the first book in the series, The Lightning Thief, follows Perseus “Percy” Jackson, a twelve-year-old boy who discovers he is the demigod son of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon. In the novels, the big three, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon, swear to father no more children and never to interact with them. The gods took this pledge due to their children being too powerful and having the potential to cause a great, catastrophic conflict which, in this universe, was the cause of WWII. 

When Percy learns he is at risk of being found by ferocious monsters due to his demigod status, he is taken to a hidden training facility called Camp Half-Blood, located on Long Island, New York, where many young demigods live in safety from the monsters once believed only to exists in Greek myth. Zeus accuses Percy of stealing one of the god’s Master Bolts, so to prevent another war among the gods and clear his name, Percy must travel with his friends to the Underworld to retrieve the bolt, which is believed to be in the possession of Hades, the god of the death himself. 

This season will follow the second book, A Sea of Monsters, which chronicles Percy and his friends, Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase, as they embark on a mission to retrieve the Golden Fleece, which will help restore the tree that places a protective, magical guard around Camp Half-Blood to prevent monsters from discovering it. 

In the novels, Annabeth Chase (Percy’s friend and love interest) is described as having curly blonde hair and stormy grey eyes; however, on the show, she is portrayed by the young actress Leah Jeffries. Aryan Simhadri plays Percy’s best friend and guardian, Grover Underwood, described in the text as having reddish brown hair and a wispy goatee; Simhadri in no way resembles the original novel character. If this is a case of selecting who was to portray the roles in the best possible way, then obviously, it’s due praise. Regardless of whether the actors strongly resemble the book characters or not, what matters is that the performances are believable enough. However, if these young actors were chosen merely for their skin tone, there is indeed room for criticism. 

On IMDB, the series sits at 7.1 stars and was greenlit by the author, Rick Riordan, in 2022, whereas the previous films based on the series were not “endorsed” by him. Many of the reviews are positive, stating it is far more accurate to the books plotwise, though some criticize that the dialogue is boring and flat. 

Current Disney is well-known for destroying beloved IPs, so for book fans, it’s hard to have any faith in the Percy Jackson books being adapted well, especially after the 2010 and 2013 failures, unless this series, despite the glaring changes to two of the main characters, becomes one of the rare exceptions. Having only read the books, it is hard to say if this show is any good, so I will refrain from offering any opinion about it, being that I possess none. 

In general, however, it is hard to have any trust in Hollywood these days, and the current state of these adaptations makes one wish for a much stronger gatekeeping mentality among fans to prevent these bastardizations from being produced. 

Now, the floor is open to you, dear readers. For those who have watched the first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, what are your thoughts, and do you plan on continuing with season 2? Please comment down below!