Percy Jackson and the Olympians has been renewed for a second season at Disney+, as was announced today during the latest quarterly earnings call by CEO Bob Iger. The renewal comes to little surprise as the first season was a success with both critics and audiences, with the series’ Rotten Tomatoes scores at 92% and 81%.
Though season 1 of the series is not a page-for-page copy of the source material, Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief, it has been overall hailed as a faithful adaptation, with changes and additions that add to the emotional depth and significance of the story while still remembering to have fun. In our initial review for season 1 based only on the first two episodes, we stated the series “both embraces and respectfully adapts the book series while building upon the captivating story and characters that were already there,” a statement we feel only deepened as the eight-episode season progressed.
Season 1 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians introduced audiences to the newest version of the titular character played by Walker Scobell — a 12-year-old whose life is quickly altered by the revelation that Percy is a Demigod, plummeted into the middle of a war brewing between his father Poseidon and uncle Zeus, sparked by Zeus’ belief that Percy stole his Master Bolt. To prevent this war and uncover a larger plot, Percy embarks on a quest across the United States with a daughter of the Goddess Athena, Annabeth Chase played by Leah Sava Jeffries, and satyr protector Grover Underwood played by Aryan Simhadri, encountering multiple Gods and mythical monsters along the way.
The series was created by Riordan and Jon Steinberg, who served as showrunner alongside Dan Shotz. Executive producers include Riordan, his wife Rebecca Riordan, Steinberg, Shotz, James Bobin, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, Anders Engström, Jet Wilkinson and Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell and D.J. Goldberg.
Season 2 would naturally be expected to follow the second book in the series, The Sea of Monsters.
Additional coverage for Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1 including episodic recaps can be found here.
