Mothers, lock up your meteorological phenomena; there’s a lightning thief in town. Variety reports today that Disney+ has begun development on a TV series adaptation of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series of YA mythology hits. Riordan announced the news himself on Twitter this afternoon, including the fact that the first season of the series will cover the first Percy Jackson book, 2005's The Lightning Thief.
For the unfamiliar, Riordan’s series—which ended up spanning 5 novels, plus a host of spin-offs, sequel series, and supplementals—centers on the titular youth, who discovers one day that he’s a wizard he’s a demigod, one of several descended from the Greek pantheon of mythical deities. The books got a pair of film adaptations in 2010 and 2013, notable these days mostly for Riordan’s public willingness to express his dissatisfaction with the end results.
It sounds like Disney+—hungry as it is to devour all the young-skewing YA hits of the last 20 years, between this and Artemis Fowl—is being a bit more accommodating than 20th Century Fox was back in the day. As part of the announcement, Riordan made it clear that “Rest assured that [his wife] Becky & I will be involved in person in every aspect of the show.” There’s no word on when the series might go into development—because there’s no word on when anything might go into development right now—but it’s big news for all the now-grown kids for whom Percy and [look up other Percy Jackson characters later, possibly some kind of Minotaur or talking goat?] were firm friends and companions while they were growing up.