Percy Jackson and the Olympians (TV Series)

[Patricier21]

Exciting! I wonder if these means we'll get a proper trailer soon.

If I may ask, what are your thoughts on the movies? Have you ever read the graphic novels, and what are your thoughts on them? Because in many ways, they are actually way more loyal to the books than the show is, of which I can definitely state even more than based on what we know so far

[PatchofBlue]

I have fondness for the movies. That's not to say that I think that they're these fine works of high art, but I enjoy them just fine.

I should probably say up front that in the framework of adaptation, a film's internal coherency is much more important to me than "faithfulness." It doesn't really bother me that the movies took generous liberties with the source material. Mind you, they're also not particularly good movies either, but I also don't think that the books were fantastic, so it's not really a fall from grace. I was over the moon for them when I was in their target demographic, but revisiting the Percy Jackson books years after the fact, they still feel kind of locked in that junior high mindset. Like, the Harry Potter books to me aren't beyond scrutiny, but they still hold up just fine revisiting them as an adult in a way that Percy Jackson stories haven't.

Where the movies' flaws are regularly discussed in and out of the fandom, the books have loads of problems that are just kind of ignored. Basically, I see them as fun but messy books that were adapted in fun but messy movies.

I remain excited for this new series because I do think the foundations of the story are interesting, such that with proper filmmaking, we can still get something really entertaining. I've been intrigued by some of the casting decisions (Heaven smiled when Toby Stephens was cast as Poseidon), and Disney appears to be putting a lot of resources into the making and marketing of this show.

Given that this series is basically being marketed almost entirely on Rick Riordan's involvement and the promise of a "faithful adaptation," I'm certain this will end up being largely accurate to his books. Again, more or less fidelity to the source material won't necessarily make this a stronger series, but I'm open to seeing what they've got.

I never read the graphic novel.

[Disney's Divinity]

I agree that Percy Jackson is a lesser book series to HP. I knew that back when I read it the first time, HP was on another level, but PJ is fun. I haven't re-read it though, and I didn't continue after the main story came to a conclusion in the fifth book. I've read that Nico gets his own book (and his own love interest) later, but I don't really want to dive further, the series was only ever alright. The Greek mythology of it was one of the main appeals, although finding out the plot resolutions at the end of the book was usually a strong point, too.

Plus, I'm one of those people who doesn't like to shift between characters, I've always disliked that.... I mean, a strong author can sometimes pull it off (LOTR, GoT, etc.), it's just not something I enjoy. I like to have the same setup from the beginning to the ending of a series, even if that sometimes requires creativity on the author's part to get all the story points they have in mind from one viewpoint. If they had continued with Percy as the protagonist, I might have grudgingly kept going perhaps, although I was never that passionate about the series. The change in protagonist gave me a jumping off point.

[Patricier21]

I have fondness for the movies. That's not to say that I think that they're these fine works of high art, but I enjoy them just fine.

I should probably say up front that in the framework of adaptation, a film's internal coherency is much more important to me than "faithfulness." It doesn't really bother me that the movies took generous liberties with the source material. Mind you, they're also not particularly good movies either, but I also don't think that the books were fantastic, so it's not really a fall from grace. I was over the moon for them when I was in their target demographic, but revisiting the Percy Jackson books years after the fact, they still feel kind of locked in that junior high mindset. Like, the Harry Potter books to me aren't beyond scrutiny, but they still hold up just fine revisiting them as an adult in a way that Percy Jackson stories haven't.

Where the movies' flaws are regularly discussed in and out of the fandom, the books have loads of problems that are just kind of ignored. Basically, I see them as fun but messy books that were adapted in fun but messy movies.

I remain excited for this new series because I do think the foundations of the story are interesting, such that with proper filmmaking, we can still get something really entertaining. I've been intrigued by some of the casting decisions (Heaven smiled when Toby Stephens was cast as Poseidon), and Disney appears to be putting a lot of resources into the making and marketing of this show.

Given that this series is basically being marketed almost entirely on Rick Riordan's involvement and the promise of a "faithful adaptation," I'm certain this will end up being largely accurate to his books. Again, more or less fidelity to the source material won't necessarily make this a stronger series, but I'm open to seeing what they've got.

I never read the graphic novel.

First of all, I must say that I thank you for expressing your views on this, Of which happened to be very similar to mine I’m glad that there is more people who are admitting that the books have problems that fans are (understateably) very ignorant to, and are actually acting quite toxic towards their viewpoints with the series, acting like it’s the greatest thing ever that’s completely flawless, even being quite ignorant towards things like the graphic novel, again being as loyal to the books as is possible to get, and which even the tv series will NEVER EVER get anymore loyal to; One fan I’ve encountered even stated “there are no pictures” in regards to the books, even after telling them about the GRAPHIC novels, In regards to why they so desperately want the movies to be so loyal to the books……

All of this being said is also why I want this TV series to be canceled, and have them continue the movies. Per what I’ve said before, is that we already have as “shot for shot” loyal (which is apparently what the fans truly want), adaptations with the graphic novels, and the fact that at least in live action, the series just doesn’t translate well unless it is approached like what they did with the movies. There is a reason why they had to change and do what they did with them, because it just doesn’t work as it’s too unbelievable; I mean look at the Mysterious Benedict Society, also based on a similar book series, also a Disney+ series, and it even had the same Director direct the pilot and maybe some other episodes (And that director, James Bobin, has had quite an unlucky track record with Disney lately: Muppets most wanted, Alice through the looking glass (which I quite really like BTW , and again, Mysterious Benedict Society overall). You also look at other similar things like Spy Kids, which is also very similar and was decently beloved, only to have it not hold up well like you and Disney’s Divinity have stated when you get older as opposed to things like Harry Potter, and well most of Disney overall. I agree that the movies could’ve been quite a bit better, And are certainly messy, but at least they are a step in the right direction and at least tried to have something work, and as is, they both were actually decently successful, even if not huge hits, and there’s a decent chance they actually could’ve continued the movies if Fox wasn’t going through financial issues shortly after/around when the second one was coming out.

Another thing to keep in mind to is of course that people are quite frankly becoming way too picky and reliant on other people‘s reactions and “current trends“ to truly appreciate and enjoy things. You’re seeing that with a lot of pretty much everything which is why a lot of things including superhero movies in regards to entertainment overall have not been doing that well, but again they actually could have done at the very least a little bit better if people stood up and actually checked things out for themselves, again instead of just going with what other people are thinking, as if afraid that if they do that they were gonna look bad and they are “wrong”, which if anything, is literally always the exact opposite, no matter what no matter how otherwise it may seem

[Pokenonbinary]

Percy Jackson in the books: olive skin, mediterranean complexion, black curly hair and blue eyes like the sea.

The show: I think I can only give you the blue eyes, you take it or leave it.

I hate the obsession Hollywood in live action to ignore mediterranean themed stories, every single movie about ancient Rome and Greece, stories about the MENA region etc, they never get properly casted

[PatchofBlue]

I don't remember the books mentioning him having olive skin, but it has been a little bit since I've read the books. I'll have to watch for that.

But I definitely remember him having green eyes, not blue.

[Patricier21]

Percy Jackson in the books: olive skin, mediterranean complexion, black curly hair and blue eyes like the sea.

The show: I think I can only give you the blue eyes, you take it or leave it.

I hate the obsession Hollywood in live action to ignore mediterranean themed stories, every single movie about ancient Rome and Greece, stories about the MENA region etc, they never get properly casted

Logan Lerman looks way more closer to how he’s described and illustrated in the book, EH? Even if older, he does still resemble him way more closely than in the show here, along with with Annabeth and Grover, even with Grover been dark skinned in both cases

[Pokenonbinary]

Percy Jackson in the books: olive skin, mediterranean complexion, black curly hair and blue eyes like the sea.

The show: I think I can only give you the blue eyes, you take it or leave it.

I hate the obsession Hollywood in live action to ignore mediterranean themed stories, every single movie about ancient Rome and Greece, stories about the MENA region etc, they never get properly casted

Logan Lerman looks way more closer to how he’s described and illustrated in the book, EH? Even if older, he does still resemble him way more closely than in the show here, along with with Annabeth and Grover, even with Grover been dark skinned in both cases

Logan still looks anglo, closer to mediterranean than the kid actor but not med, I need a mediterranean actor

[PatchofBlue]

Release date: December 20, 2023

New Teaser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK0HytQwrw8



Opening with Percy ascending the elevator actually immediately reminded me of the teaser for the movie, which is interesting given how this entire series seems to have been greenlit on the promise of erasing those films.

Guess we're also getting the series sooner than anticipated. Technically. I think initial projections were early 2024, and, well, this is earlier than early 2024.

[Patricier21]

Then why not continue the movies? They were in the process of being closer to the books,And while they didn’t make a LOT of money,They still did better than other movies the fox released not long after, so I could’ve turned a decent profit also considering they didn’t cost that much to make, and actually do resemble the books more closely, as the more we see from the show the more it feels more unloyal to the series then the movies

[PatrickvD]

I wonder how long this will be on Disney+ before cost cutting measures force them to remove it.

[Sotiris]

New posters:

https://twitter.com/PercySeries/status/ ... 1758663779
https://twitter.com/DisneyBrandTVPR/sta ... 9459511367
https://twitter.com/DisneyPlus/status/1 ... 8157302131
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz4B1UfJ6t9/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0cFJYgJUvs/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0cE9dFpDae/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0cFDQgJDCe/

[PatchofBlue]

New Teaser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzHMAXqFFvc

I thought the CGI for the Fury was a little plastic, but I won't deny that Sally telling Percy "You're going to need to be brave now" had me tearing up just a little bit.

[PatchofBlue]

Character Posters
https://collider.com/percy-jackson-and- ... r-posters/

































Their new approach to Hades hasn't landed for me yet, and Hermes' shot just looks like a random pic of Lin.

I'm really here for Toby Stephens as Poseidon and Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus, though.

I wonder how long this will be on Disney+ before cost cutting measures force them to remove it.

I think Disney is banking on this one being one of their banner shows in the vein of The Mandalorian that will carry the service across multiple seasons. This show has also generated considerably more hype than something like Big Shot.

[Sotiris]

^Why are they calling those "character posters"? They're not; they're just screenshots from the show.

[PatchofBlue]

New trailer, and it is phenomenal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHb7au6Gmls

Something I think is interesting is the way that this adaptation has basically been marketed as "a faithful adaptation of the books (finally!)" but most of the dialogue in this trailer is unique to the show. I'm counting that as a good thing, partially because dialogue is not necessarily something that the books were fantastic at, and because it shows the writers for this show are in fact being more creative than just lifting the words from the book onto the screenplay. That tends to make for very boring adaptation.

Anyways, given that Disney+ has been having some trouble as of late, it would be really nice if they had another reliable long-form show to keep the lights on for them.

But also, give me more of Toby Stephens, please!

[Pokenonbinary]

Percy in the books: olive skin, medirerranean complexion and black hair

Percy in the show: a pale white kid with goldish hair and celtic complexion

Was that difficult to find a mediterranean kid when in the states there are millions and millions?

[Lele]

Percy in the books: olive skin, medirerranean complexion and black hair

Percy in the show: a pale white kid with goldish hair and celtic complexion

Was that difficult to find a mediterranean kid when in the states there are millions and millions?

It’s funny how you only have a problem with Percy when he’s much closer to how he’s supposed to look like unlike blackwashed Annabeth, Grover and even Zeus out of all mythological characters, and who are a much bigger problem when it comes to the casting as they all must be white.

None of those characters and greek gods especially are supposed to have sub saharan african or south asian complexions. Percy is a non-issue in comparison.

The least they could have done is to let the actual greek actor to play Zeus, but current Disney is being current Disney yet again.

[Sotiris]

‘Percy Jackson And The Olympians’ Trailer Amasses 84M Views In 10 Days
https://deadline.com/2023/11/percy-jack ... 235639522/

[PatchofBlue]

‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ to Premiere on Hulu Alongside Disney+
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/percy- ... 235837494/

Curious about what their gameplan is for this. I'd think they'd want to use this to make Disney+ the destination for what looks like is one of the rare Disney+ exclusives to actually generate a lot of hype.

Anyways, reviews for the first episodes seem to be pretty promising, though a lot of the praise seems to hinge specifically on it being more "faithful" to the books, which isn't necessarily the dividing line between a good adaptation in my book.

'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' review: The adaptation fans have been waiting for
https://mashable.com/article/percy-jack ... ans-review

Disney+’s ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Is a Riveting and Stunning Adaptation: TV Review
https://variety.com/2023/tv/reviews/per ... 235835010/

'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' Review: Disney+ Delivers a Mythical Marvel That Surpasses the Films
https://www.thewrap.com/percy-jackson-a ... sney-plus/