Rick and Rebecca Riordan on ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’: ‘It is Percy Jackson the way we envisioned it’ 

Rick and Rebecca Riordan, who are executive producers on the show with Riordan co-writing, talks of the joys of adapting the beloved book series with a top-notch cast and special effects team

The movie based on Rick Riordan’s hugely popular novels about Percy Jackson, a 12-year-old who discovers he is the son of Poseidon, got mixed reactions. Although a commercial success, fans were unhappy with Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and Riordan was not particularly pleased with the adaptation either. That is not the case with Disney’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, an eight-episode series that premiered on December 19, 2023.

With Riordan and his wife, Rebecca, executive producing the show as well as Riordan co-writing with Jonathan E. Steinberg, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is closer to the books, in terms of tone. “We were very involved,” says Riordan over a video call from New York. “So many notes,” chips in Rebecca with a laugh.

“It was a long and collaborative process to build the script. I had to learn a great deal,” says Riordan. To give a sense of time taken to write the script, Rebecca asks Riordan, “How many books did you write while developing the series?”

“I think I wrote three novels during the time it took us to write the script,” said Riordan. “That tells you how long it takes to get it right. I was in every writers’ room, reading every script that Becky (Rebecca) was reading with me.”

The show, Riordan says, happened because Disney bought Fox, which had the television and film rights. “Disney has been my publisher here in the US for years. I went to Disney with Becky and said we would be interested in trying again to adapt Percy Jackson, but as a television show. Fortunately for us, they got excited about the idea and here we are (smiles).”

A television show, Rebecca says, gives more time to tell the story. “I would like to say thank you to The Hindu for all the wonderful book coverage that we’ve had over the years for the Puffin editions. It has been fabulous and heartwarming. We count on you all as early fans and we wanted to allow fans and readers to see the book the way it should be.” Riordan concurs saying, “It is Percy Jackson the way we envisioned it.”

The show is handsome-looking with excellent special effects. “We had a great team,” says Riordan. “The best of the best went into making the special effects.” One of the tenets that the special effects team tried to adhere to, Rebecca says, is making a grounded fantasy show.