The new ‘Percy Jackson’ series has everything fans want from a book adaptation

Remaking a movie from a book that has already been made into a movie is usually not a good idea, especially if the first movie isn’t great. The film industry has proven this to us time and time again. But there are exceptions. For example, the series ‘Shadowhunters’ is much more popular than the 2013 film. An exception to a similar genre is Disney’s new series ‘Percy Jackson’.

For those who have not seen the (more than) ten year old films and have not read the book series by Rick Riordan: Percy Jackson is a twelve-year-old boy who lives with his mother and stepfather in New York. He is an outsider at school. But when he finally defends himself against his bully, he is expelled from school and introduced to a new world full of ancient gods and mystical creatures.

In the first episode, viewers not only get to know Percy, he also learns something new about himself. Because he has noticed for a long time that he is different from his classmates. Percy sees things that can’t be true. Sample. In the middle of New York. His mother finally reveals to him that he is a demigod. Percy’s father is one of many Greek gods, but Percy (and the audience) only finds out who exactly is as the series progresses.

Percy has been chased by monsters since the incident at school, so he can’t go back. Instead, his mother takes him to a camp where other young people like him live. Percy thrives among his peers and is soon sent on his first adventure.

Percy is played by Walker Scobell. He is an unknown face in Hollywood and has only starred in two films so far. Unlike Logan Lerman, who played Percy in the two film adaptations, Scobell is actually a twelve-year-old. This is because he was actually about 12 years old at the time of filming. Lerman was already a few years older, which makes a huge difference at that age.

Disney also did its best to cast the right people for the rest of the cast. And anyone who says Annabeth (played by Leah Jeffries) isn’t true to the descriptions in the books needs to take on Rick Riordan. “If you have a problem with this cast, please contact me. “You can’t blame anyone else,” Riordan writes on his blog. And further: “As a writer, it was clear to me that I was looking for the best actors to embody and bring to life the personalities of these characters, and appearance was of secondary importance to me. We did that. We took a year to thoroughly conduct this process and find the best of the best. This trio is the best. Lea Jeffries is Annabeth Chase.”

What works in this series’ favor is the fact that Riordan worked on it, serving as co-writer and executive producer. That wasn’t the case with the movies. The first season tells the events of the first book “Thieves in Olympus” and is a very faithful adaptation. And even though the actors and actresses are still so young, they can certainly give a convincing performance with their talent.

While there’s a lot of world building and character introduction in the first episode, the pace really picks up in the second episode. But the first episode is also important, especially for new fans who don’t know the story yet.

“Percy Jackson” is definitely one of the better young adult shows out there. It’s action-packed and takes you back to your childhood or adolescence, when you read the books and dreamed of myths and adventures.

The series will premiere with two episodes on Disney Plus on December 20. After that, a new episode will follow every week.