With the second season announced Aug. 9 at Disney’s D23 Expo, now is a good time to revisit the hit TV show “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” which came out last year. The TV show was based on the popular book series by the same name. It followed a series of movie adaptations, which were not widely liked by fans of the original books. The author of the book, Rick Riordan, is known to not be a fan of the movies, but he was very involved in the writing and production of the TV show adaptation of his most famous book. Fans were hopeful his involvement would result in the TV show more closely following the book, and they were not disappointed.
One of the major complaints many fans had with the movie adaptations from 2010 was that the main characters were not the right age. In the movie, they were played as teenagers, but in the books they were much younger. The TV show decided to stick to the book, casting young actors Walker Scobell, Leah Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri as the main trio of Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood. After the casting was announced, the three actors gained rapid popularity, reminiscent of the rise to fame of actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint after being cast in Harry Potter. Both during and after the release of the Percy Jackon series, the three actors remained popular and active on social media. The relatively young actors did a great job portraying the iconic characters, and their relationships and have garnered a lot of attention for the show.
An actor who also deserves attention is Jessica Parker Kennedy, who played Medusa in episode 3. Instead of the traditional depiction of Medusa as an evil monster, the TV show writers decided to add an interesting facet to the classic character: that she is not just a monster, but a victim. She attempts to sway Percy to her side by recounting her story of being turned into a monster by a goddess that she idolized and worshiped – none other than Annabeth’s mother, Athena. Despite her being an antagonist, viewers cannot help but feel some level of pity for the woman, punished by someone she looked up to for falling in love with the god, Poesioden. I think this was a great spin on a well-known character that added a level of depth to the character.
Season one of the Percy Jackson TV show delighted viewers with the closeness to the book and the phenomenal actors. Season two promises new actors introduced to play some more favorite characters and the promise of a new, original character has upped fans’ anticipation. Riordan’s continued presence in the writer’s room and on set has viewers hopeful that the season based on book two, “The Sea of Monsters,” will do the beloved book justice and live up to the expectations set by season one.
