With Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and The Olympians novels being adapted for a live-action Disney+ TV show, its larger connection with other Riordan series' could make this series even bigger than expected. Originally published back in 2005, the Percy Jackson book series has since amassed quite a large following. After the fairly disappointing attempt by 20th Century Fox in trying to accurately adapt the series to film, audiences are excited to see if Disney can do things right. However, as Disney is not one to shy away from franchises, there might be a lot more to the series than initially intended.

The story of Percy Jackson centers around its namesake, 12-year-old Percy Jackson, who is frequently bullied for both his dyslexia and ADHD. Percy Jackson eventually discovers that he is the demigod son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, and, as a result, is thrust into a life of danger, mystery, and self-discovery, which begins with starting a new life at Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary and training ground for demigods. Throughout the series, Percy goes on a multitude of fantastical adventures with his new friends, which ultimately leads to a final battle with the Titan known as Kronos, the Lord of Time and the father to a large portion of well-known gods like Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and Demeter, who plans to overthrow Olympus and rule the world.

Percy Jackson is based around the idea that ancient Greek mythology is not really a myth at all and that it has infiltrated modern-day society. Every monster, hero, and god from the stories of old is real and they are hiding in plain sight all throughout America. Not only that, but they have changed certain things about themselves as a means of adapting to western culture and keeping up with the times. Several examples of this include Mount Olympus being located at the top of the Empire State Building in New York City, the company Amazon being run by actual Amazon warriors, and the entrance to the Underworld is through a recording studio in Los Angeles (although the films changed it to the Hollywood sign). Interestingly enough, though, this is not the only series that author Rick Riordan has on his resume that centers around the idea of westernizing ancient legends and it could open the door for more adaptations and eventually could rival the scope of the MCU.

What Other Riordan Stories Could Disney Adapt?


Besides Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan has a total of four separate series' that center around myths in the modern day. The other stories include The Kane Chronicles, Heroes Of Olympus, The Trials of Apollo, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, which each depict the existences of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Norse legends respectively. The most interesting part of these books is that, despite each pantheon being completely different from one another, they all surprisingly take place within the same universe, with several cameos here and there from Percy and other fan-favorite characters.

This means that Disney may have struck gold in terms of acquiring a new franchise, as this entire venture has the potential to become so big that it could become an in-house rival to Disney's biggest current franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in terms of size and amount of content. At moment, Disney only possesses the rights to Percy Jackson and The Olympians and no other Riordan series. However, considering the fact that Riordan himself is collaborating with Disney, the possibility of the company obtaining the rights to his other works grows increasingly more likely. If this is the direction that Disney is heading toward, expectations for the show are now higher than ever before, as the future and potential of this franchise now heavily relies on the success of the series. With any luck, Disney will not disappoint.