On December 19, 2023, Disney+ released the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, first airing two episodes on the release date, then releasing an additional episode every Tuesday. There are a total of eight episodes, the season finale being on January 30th, 2024.
The series itself was a smash hit on Disney+, especially with the younger generation who grew up reading the book series that the show is based on. It is often compared to the two Percy Jackson movies released in 2010 and 2013, based on the first two books of the series “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” and “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters”. Critics have praised the series over the movies, but many have commented on Rick Riordan’s casting choices for the new series.
One of the positives people have gotten from the series, contrary to the movies, was that the author of the Percy Jackson books, Rick Riordan, has direct involvement in directing the series made on Disney+, which he had no control over in the old movies. However, people have been criticizing his casting choices, most commonly with the character Annabeth Chase. In the books, Annabeth is described as a blonde and tan girl with stormy gray eyes. However, Rick Riordan chose Leah Jeffries, a young black actress, to play Annabeth in the show. This casting above all the others sparked racist backlash, forcing the young star at the age of 15 to speak out in an interview with Teen Vogue, “‘Mr. Rick chose us for a reason. We got the part because we fit their personality, not because we fit their appearance.’” (Teen Vogue Interview). Eventually, the controversy became so bad that Rick Riordan, the author of the original books, himself responded with a post declaring, “If you have a problem with this casting, however, take it up with me. […] we should be able to agree that bullying and harassing a child online is inexcusably wrong.” (https://rickriordan.com/2022/05/leah-jeffries-is-annabeth-chase/).
Alexandra Daddario played Annabeth in the 2010 movies of the book, which people claimed to be a more realistic depiction of Annabeth than Leah despite the fact that she wasn’t blonde, she was just white. However, fans of the book series pointed out that the three stars of the movies, Logan Lerman, Brandon T Jackson, and Alexandra Daddario were much older than the characters they played. Logan was a 17-year-old playing 13-year-old Percy Jackson, while his co-stars Brandon and Alexandra were 23 and 25 playing Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase, who were also 13. The new cast of Disney+ is much more popular, with Walker Scobell playing Percy Jackson and Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase both ages of 15, and Aryan Simhadri playing Grover at 17. The three stars have incredible chemistry on and off-screen in interviews.
The public has made the overall decision that the new 2023 series depicting Percy Jackson and the Olympians is superior to the previous movies made in the 2010s. Although Disney+ has not officially renewed the show for a second season, they have said they plan on making five seasons, one for each of the books in the series. With the show being such an instant hit, there is no doubt that the three stars’ journeys will continue further into the Rick Riordan universe.
