How a hands-on Rick Riordan helped Disney Plus' Percy Jackson find its way

When Disney+ announced that it was developing a new series based on Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson franchise, fans were understandably skeptical. They’d already seen a big Hollywood studio distort the source material into something unrecognizable with the 2010 film Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (that title alone—oof). Would this new streaming series be any different? Riordan, who was just as disappointed with the movie adaptation as the fans, vowed that it would be. In addition to serving as an executive producer on the series, he co-wrote the pilot and created a series bible for the writing staff.

Thanks to Riordan’s stewardship, the premise of the book remains intact in the Disney+ series Percy Jackson And The Olympians. When we meet Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell) he’s a troubled 12-year-old who starts experiencing some strange things he can’t explain. He soon learns from his mother that his father is actually a god, which makes him a demigod, and a target of mythological monsters who will never stop coming for him now that he knows who he is. With his best friend Grover (Aryan Simhadri), who turns out to be a satyr, Percy takes refuge at Camp Half-Blood, a place of protection where demigods go to study and train. There he meets Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) and the three of them are soon sent on an important quest that could avert a war between the gods of Mt. Olympus.

Riordan and his wife and longtime collaborator Becky, who also served as an executive producer on the new series, spoke to The A.V. Club about their contributions to the production and what fans can expect this time around.

Becky Riordan: We were guardians, basically, weren’t we?

Rick Riordan: Yeah. Kind of stewards. Stewards of the source material.

BR: Stewards is a great word. Now I’m thinking Guardians Of The Galaxy [laughs].

RR: Guardians of the Galaxy. Yeah. I want to be Groot.

BR: Oh, I get to be Groot.

RR: Okay. But we were involved in everything from the very earliest stages, from picking the team to casting to the writing room, developing the scripts. We were on set during filming for most of the time. I mean, it was really everything.

AVC: Obviously, you’ve been burned before on previous adaptations. How did it feel this time being listened to and having your notes taken and being such an integral part of the production?

RR: Yeah, I mean, it was really nice to sort of have on-the-job training, as it were, to come into the process and have partners who would help us see how a TV show is made and the different factors we have to weigh. But then on our end also communicate to them what is important about the source material.

BR: What we need to see.

RR: Yeah, what do we need to see?

BR: What do the fans need to see?

RR: And the fans. What is integral to Percy Jackson that has to be in this adaptation? So it was kind of a two way translation and we were dealing with our film team and they were helping us and we were hopefully helping them.

AVC: Is there anything in the series that will surprise book fans?

BR: Oh, I think a lot, because it’s Percy’s voice in the books, and it’s his perspective. That’s what you get, right? And for the show, we have everything else. So we get to show scenes where Percy’s not there. You know, it’s Ares and Grover, for example. It’s Grover and his mother figure. It’s Annabeth.

RR: It’s the same story, but it’s multidimensional. And I think that will deepen the viewer’s appreciation, I hope, for the story. I think it adds a lot of emotional depth.

AVC: What was it like to be on set at Camp Half-Blood? Did you have any say in the design of the cabins?

RR: We did have a say. We saw all kinds of drafts and drawings and worked with Dan Hennah, the production designer.

BR: There’s a phrase that they use in Hollywood: prescriptive. You don’t want to be too prescriptive because all these creative talents bring their vision to a show. And, you know, why would they show up if you didn’t allow them to do their job, right? So it was great to be able to have him show his vision, you know, what he wanted to see. We weighed in on, like, the Big House, for example, because we felt the Big House really needed to be book specific so we could ground Camp Half-Blood in a place. And it’s rendered so lovingly. I walked into the Hermes cabin and there’s Mythomagic cards laid out on the bunk, you know? And so that that tells you the attention to detail that our crew had.

AVC: What do you say to book readers who tell you that it isn’t what they pictured, whether it’s in terms of the casting or the locations or the sets? You’ve already been hearing some of those comments, haven’t you?

RR: Sure. I mean, I would say, first of all—I’m speaking as a book author here—the book is always the best version of the story, and that’s my personal bias. But the reason for that is it engages your imagination actively. You have to create those images in your head. So the Camp Half-Blood that you see when you’re reading belongs to you and you alone, and what you see may not be the same as what someone else sees. As soon as I show you a visual picture, people will start picking it apart. “Oh, no. I thought the hair was longer.” “I didn’t think they were that tall.” Whatever it is. So I acknowledge that that is true. Maybe it doesn’t look the way you saw it. The second thing I would say is watch the show. These characters embody the personality of the characters so well that by the end of the season, this is the way you will see the characters.

BR: Oh, yeah. And that’s happened to you.

RR: Yeah. I hear Aryan’s voice in my head, for instance, now when I write Grover. And Walker and Leah, it’s really difficult for me to see Percy and Annabeth as anyone else.

AVC: Which character is the most fun for you personally to write?

BR: Well, you love Grover.

RR: I do. Grover is just great. I really have a lot of empathy for Grover, so I think I would go with him. Although, of course, Percy’s, like, hilarious. I love writing from his point of view.

AVC: It’s interesting you bring up the humor, because that’s not really something we saw in the previous adaptation. But it seems like the series is bringing that back to the story.

RR: That is tricky because, again, in the books, everything is told from Percy’s first-person point of view.

BR: So he can think things in his head that you wouldn’t say out loud, right?

RR: Yeah. I mean, you can’t really translate that kind of narrative into film, at least not easily. And so you have to take something that’s an interior monologue and you have to figure out a way to impart the same level of snark and, you know, off-brand sense of humor that Percy kind of brings to things. The appreciation of the absurdities of life. And it is a balancing act. We had to tinker with it and play around with different ways of doing that.

BR: And also thank goodness for Walker. I mean, every time I watch an episode I say that out loud. He definitely is Percy.

AVC: What are your plans for future series based on your other books? Are there adaptations of the Magnus Chase or Kane Chronicles series in the works?

RR: Well, we have talked about various developments of various projects over the last four years.

BR: Yeah, Kane’s at Netflix currently. [But] the strike really ground that to a halt. We don’t know where it is yet. There’s still some interest there.

RR: All things are possible, but to build a house you need to start with a good foundation, and Percy Jackson is the foundation. So we will see how people like it.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians premieres December 20 on Disney+