Rick Riordan Dishes On Giving a 'Percy Jackson' Adaptation Another Go & Keeping It More Faithful to the Books

We are getting closer and closer to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series and it’s already on track to be a much better adaptation of the books than the previously released movies, which he called a “mess.”

That in part, is mostly due to Rick Riordan, who of course wrote the books, being much more involved this time around, co-writing episodes and executive producing, along with his wife Becky.

In a new interview, Rick opened up about deciding to try and do another adaptation and sticking much closer to the books this time around.

Find out what he shared inside…

“I wanted to see if there was an opportunity to make an adaptation that was more closely aligned with the source material. Fans of the books have wanted that for years. The acquisition of Fox by Disney presented an opportunity to look at that again,” he told Disney fan club D23. “I made the choice with my wife Becky to go out to Hollywood again and give it one more shot. It became a full-time job. It was, to use Greek mythology, a Herculean effort to get it off the ground—but we did it. It was three solid years of work and I’m really pleased that we finally have the series coming out.”

Rick and Becky first announced they were developing the series in May 2020, and it was officially picked up by Disney+ in January 2022.

So, what does Rick have to say about the upcoming series being a more faithful adaptation, and did they take more creative liberties?

“It was a great challenge and something that I don’t think I understood until I was on the other side trying to figure it out,” he said. “If you just try and go word for word and recreate the sentence, it will be faithful but it won’t make any sense. It won’t make the same point. You have to make some changes in order to say the same thing. That’s the way it is with film too. You have to use a different toolbox to say roughly the same thing.”

“In terms of the plot, we stuck with it very closely. What I will say though, that I found really fascinating, is that we were able to look at the story, which I wrote back in 2005, and say, ‘What do I wish I had done at that time? What background can we give people that know the story backwards and forwards, but still have questions like, ‘How did Sally meet Poseidon?’ or ‘What were Percy’s experiences in school before we see him in the first chapter?’’ We were able to dive into that and flesh out the history of these characters and the chemistry between them in ways that are completely faithful [to the book] but are also new,” Rick added.

He also teased that he has a cameo in the series!

ICYMI: Rick just revealed that a seventh book is in the works.

Is there going to be a second season of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV show?? Find out the latest update here!