When the first Percy Jackson book was adapted into a movie in 2010, both fans and author of the five-book series itself thought the adaptation was bad. With poor special effects and a significant rewrite of the original story–including the “aging up” of the three main characters–the 20th Century Fox film looked to be destined for little long-term success. After a sequel based on the second book in the series, which made 20 million dollars less in the box office than the first film, the studio discontinued making the remaining books into movies, leaving little hope for fans to ever see their favorite trio back on the big screen. 

Later in 2018, author of the “Percy Jackson & the Olympians” series Rick Riordan published emails from 2009 with producers of the first film urging them to make large changes to the plot and characters, along with 12 pages of notes about the script. In the closing of one of his emails, he warns producers to not let the movie “become another statistic in a long line of failed movies badly adapted from children’s books,” and for the most part of the 2010s, it became exactly so. 

That’s why a TV adaptation of the series, proposed in 2019 and greenlit in May 2020, was seen by many fans as the well-deserved redemption of the beloved books. According to Riordan and his wife who were executive producers of the show, adapting the book across an eight-episode season made sense, with Riordan telling Variety the new format was an opportunity “to be more faithful to the source material, which is what the fans of the books really would love to see.” 

But in a later interview with Entertainment Weekly, the Riordans emphasized that changes would be made to the story, and would help the story show growth since the original book was written in 2005. Some of these changes benefited the story, adding more depth and perspectives than the book shows, but other changes to the plot specifically seem to make little sense and makes the show not the in-depth “true” retelling of the beloved books many fans hoped for. 

One positive change is the casting of Black actress Leah Jefferies as Annabeth Chase in the series, who obviously looks much different from the “stereotypical California girl” as Percy describes her in the first book. This is a change I obviously have no problem with, but I especially liked how Riordan handled it in the development of the story. In an interview, Riordan acknowledged that Annabeth was not a Black woman when he first wrote the books and because of Jefferies’ excellence, he describes her character was modified to fit the reality of her casting. 

I really like his approach to inclusion in the casting of the series, especially when compared to the trend of “colorblind” casting of people of color. Holding himself, as well as Annabeth’s portrayal in the script, accountable makes Jefferies’ performance of the iconic character only more genuine. 

Besides casting, Riordan in the EW interview describes another deliberate change made in the show since writing the book: the treatment of Medusa. In the book, Medusa is treated as just another evil monster that the demigods face off against in their quest and ultimately has little character development. But in the show, Medusa is treated with a little more “nuance” as Riodan describes it, something I believe adds to the story and aligns well with the original myths. 

After the first two episodes, changes similar to this were partly what made me excited to continue watching the series. A few new scenes were added to the second episode specifically, which established how I originally thought the series would go. We get to see more of Grover, including scenes without Percy, which is different from the limited point-of-view of the books. Additionally Clarisse, Percy’s enemy/bully at camp and daughter of Ares, is less of the meathead she is in the books and is more manipulating and calculated. 

I’d hoped for this show to redeem the franchise from the destruction of the movies, but after the second episode, the show lost me. The deviations from the book became way too frequent and major, which ultimately makes me deem the show a failure in that sense. 

The biggest problem I have with the changes to the plot from the book was how much it undermined the original story. Although the main three of the story were cast to better represent their original ages, their logic and knowledge of the mythological elements around them in the real world make them act much older than kids of their true ages would. 

When the trio runs into Medusa in the book, they are coaxed into her “lair” of a garden statue store with the promise of greasy fast food, and Percy and Annabeth act almost as if they are under a spell. Grover is suspicious of the situation and it takes a while for the trio to realize exactly who they are dealing with. In the show, the trio hasn’t even been at “Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium,” for 10 seconds before Annabeth figures out who the store is really owned by.

Later in the story, the trio ends up in Las Vegas and wastes five of the precious days of their journey trapped in a magical hotel. In the book, the kids have no idea the Lotus Hotel is related at all to the mythological world and are able to escape just in time to continue their quest. In the show, the trio figures out the “trick” of the hotel within minutes of being there (all because Percy read the graphic novel of the Odyssey and knew the significance of lotus flowers, making people forget parts of their life). 

While the trend of the characters not immediately getting specific clues may have been changed by the writers as the truths could seem too obvious, especially to the trio who are familiar with Greek mythology, this could also be a very clear case of hindsight bias. Once the truths of Medusa and the Lotus Hotel are revealed, it is easy to see where clues were laid previously in the story. But before the realities of the “tricks” in the stories are discovered, it isn’t totally obvious (especially for 12-year-olds) to quickly figure them out. 

These changes frustrate me the most because it seems to infantilize Riordan’s beloved characters in the book. Yes, maybe Disney’s writers are able to figure out the clues and believe that the characters not figuring them out right away does not make enough logical sense, but not for some kids new to the mythological world. One of Riordan’s main priorities while creating the show was sticking to the trio’s original ages, and making them accessible to a younger audience. Making the characters a little too smart takes away not only their similarities with the younger audience, but also takes away their vulnerability with the audience, which could be shown the most especially in the adaptation of the first book. 

Another big change to key plot events happens for the trio’s time at the St. Louis Arch and their excursion to Hephaestus’ amusement park. Avoiding more spoilers for the book and the show (which are separate because of how different the two are), the scenes in the book are very action-packed fight sequences. In the show, both of these scenes are replaced with a lot of talking, including over four minutes of Echidna, mother of monsters, talking to the trio, where there is a fight scene in the book. These changes severely hindered the pacing of the story and honestly rendered some episodes completely boring. 

Again, if the goal is to engage younger audiences, a long speech by a random lady we will never see again in the story, does not engage the audience in the best way possible.

Overall across the season, the show is a lot less funny than the books. In an interview with Screen Rant, Becky Riordan, Rick’s wife, mentions that Walker Scobell (who plays Percy) really fit Percy’s “voice” from the book, and I do agree. In his limited uses of humor in the show, he does it really well. If you flip to about any chapter in the book, Percy is constantly not only making jokes, but demonstrating his wit. In the interview, both Riordans acknowledge the challenges of adapting the first-person narrative of the book to the screen, which are valid, but I think the show could have let Percy’s voice shine through a little bit more, especially with as good a choice for Percy as Scobell. 

Ultimately, there were a significant amount of things about the show that I did like. The last episode was definitely the best and made it difficult to recall everything I disliked across the season. Besides this, the show looks very good. I was genuinely amazed with how Camp Half-Blood, Mount Olympus and the final fight scene with Ares looked. 

This is why I do have hope for the series in the future. The show itself wasn’t bad, but it really did not equal what I thought it would be. I think if they do make a second season and stick closer to the books, I would really enjoy it. Percy Jackson is equal to Harry Potter for me, so I would really love to see the series grow.