This coming December, Disney is releasing the first two episodes of its brand new fantasy series, “Percy Jackson And The Olympians”, which tells the fantastical story of a 12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson, who’s just coming to terms with his newfound divine powers when the sky god, Zeus, accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. With help from his friends Grover and Annabeth, Percy must embark on an adventure of a lifetime to find it and restore order to Olympus.

The epic series is based on Disney Hyperion’s best-selling book series by award-winning author Rick Riordan.  The author recently spoke to The Wrap while promoting his new book “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods” about feeling the pressure for the upcoming Disney+ series.

“I don’t know if it’s pressure, so much as I feel a sense of responsibility to the readers.  I want to do everything I can to do right by them, and make sure that this is a show that they’re going to feel good about, and feel like they recognize and and love and relate to. There’s a lot of, I guess, pent-up wish fulfillment about having an adaptation that really sort of reflects the books. And I think — I hope — this series is going to be the antidote for that.”

20th Century Studios created two films based on the first two books in the series, but they weren’t well received by fans, since so much of the story was changed.  So unlike with the movies, Rick is much more involved in the creation of the show, including casting, writing, and much more, which should hopefully result in the series being much closer to the original books.

“If you’re a fan of the books, I think you can rest easy.  I think you’re going to be very pleased. And I think it holds up very well even if you haven’t read the books! I think it’s a really fun series, that the actors are just fantastic.”

The upcoming eight-episode show stars Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), Grover Underwood (Aryan Simhadri) and Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava Jeffries).  The series also stars Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hermes”), Megan Mullally (“Alecto” aka “Mrs. Dodds”), Toby Stephens (“Poseidon”), Virginia Kull (“Sally Jackson”), Jason Mantzoukas (“Dionysus” aka “Mr. D”), Jay Duplass (“Hades”), Glynn Turman (“Chiron” aka “Mr. Brunner”), the late Lance Reddick (“Zeus”), Adam Copeland (“Ares”), Charlie Bushnell (“Luke Castellan”), Dior Goodjohn (“Clarisse La Rue”), Jessica Parker Kennedy (“Medusa”), Olivea Morton (“Nancy Bobofit”), Suzanne Cryer (“Echidna”), Timm Sharp (“Gabe Ugliano”), Timothy Omundson (“Hephaestus”).

The first two episodes are written by Rick Riordan and Jon Steinberg and directed by James Bobin. Steinberg and Dan Shotz serve as executive producers alongside Rick Riordan, Rebecca Riordan, The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Bert Salke, The Gotham Group’s Jeremy Bell and D.J. Goldberg, James Bobin, Jim Rowe, Monica Owusu-Breen, Anders Engström and Jet Wilkinson.

The first two episodes of “Percy Jackson And The Olympians” will be released on Disney+ on December 20th 2023, followed by new episodes weekly.

Are you looking forward to watching “Percy Jackson And The Olympians”?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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