If there’s any literature series that can be described as “American Harry Potter” in comparison to popularity, impact, and love on social media it’s the "Percy Jackson" books. (Anyone mention "Twilight" and I’ll burn you at a stake.)
Written by Rick Riordan, the books centered around a boy named Percy Jackson, who discovers that, not only are the Greek gods real, but he is the son of the sea god Poseidon, one of the Big Three.
With his best friends Grover, who turns out to be a satyr and Annabeth, a daughter of Athena, Percy must now help stop the resurrection of the Mad Titan Thanos before he uses the six Infinity Stones to wipe out everything as we know it.
Nah just kidding, they have to stop Kronos (The Titan father of the Big Three) from resurrecting and taking over Olympus or all hope is lost.
But unlike the Boy Who Lived, the Son of Poseidon never got a proper on-screen adaptation. Yes. NEVER. Those two films are terrible so let’s throw them into the void.
Is there a way that Percy and his friends can show up on-screen like Harry, Ron, and Hermione? Let’s take a look:
A new movie series?
Critics, moviegoers, and fans hated the two Percy Jackson movies, directed by Chris Columbus ("The Lightning Thief") and Thor Freudenthal ("Sea of Monsters").
The movies barely adapted anything from the books, didn’t even get the mythological parts correct at times, and were overall boring. In fact, that seems to be a trend with Greek mythology-based movies these days.
A new movies series, with a crew that actually cares about their product, could be a shot in the arm Rick Riordan’s books need. And actors that actually look like teenagers (I love Alexandra Daddario as much as the next guy for... obvious reasons, but she DOES not look 16, let alone 12).
My two cents? Make the prophecy refer to the Olympian child turning 18 (as it's the legal adult age for most countries) and cast 13 to 14-year old actors so they can age properly.
But there’s also the chance that the so-called 'faithfulness' might go the "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" route…
A TV show?
Another argument that’s been rising in the days since the movies. CW and ABC have been nailing it with the DC/Marvel shows, "Gossip Girl", and "Pretty Little Liars", so why not add another to the book-to-TV pile?
Not will a TV show allow more time to focus on characters, plot points, etc, but it'll also allow the pacing to be better; one of my gripes with the "The Lightning Thief" film is that it skipped a lot of important mythological exposition...
i.e. why Poseidon and Athena don't especially like each other, why monsters like Medusa are still around, and the disappearance of the nature god Pan. Maybe on a TV show, they can keep all that.
An animated series?
Hey, Studio Mir ("Avatar: The Last Airbender [kinda sorta, on a technicality]", "Legend of Korra", "Voltron: Legendary Defender") can make anything awesome so why not?
An animated show is also a likely possibility that the series can get. While it may not be as groundbreaking as a show or movie, I believe that if Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos are the co-execs/showrunners and Studio Mir does the art (as they all do for "Voltron: Legendary Defender"), the show might become the new best animated franchise to reach Avatar-levels.
And come on, we'd all kill to see Percy
A lost cause?
As depressing as the thought is, maybe the "Percy Jackson" books just aren't meant to be live-action or even animated. Much like how many anime, book, and game adaptations have failed, maybe "Percy Jackson" just can't work in live-action.
"Eragon" didn't work, "Dragon Ball Evolution" clearly didn't work, and even "Assassin's Creed" to a degree didn't work. I don't like to believe this either, but if we really are considering all possibilities, this has to be here.
Aside from his upcoming books, no one knows what Rick Riordan has in store; apart from his seeming plan to create a mythological god-shared universe to rival Marvel and DC's own universes.
I love his books, to this day and, as someone working to be part of the entertainment industry, I want to believe that "Percy Jackson", his first and arguably most famous series, can be properly seen on the big screen. Here's to hoping it does one day.
