Disney may be the studio behind the biggest movie franchise of all time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it already has the perfect replacement for cinephiles who are tired of superheroes and Avengers-level threats. Percy Jackson & the Olympians premiered with its first season on Disney+ in 2023, adapting the first installment of Rick Riordan’s book series, The Lightning Thief. The series successfully fixed many of the issues that audiences had with the film adaptations, potentially setting up a massive new franchise.
Fans just got their best look yet at Percy Jackson & the Olympians Season 2, which returns on Disney+ on December 10 for a two-episode premiere. Adapting Riordan’s second book, Sea of Monsters, the new season sets up a much larger world of mythology, gods, and demigods. However, the next chapter of Percy Jackson is much bigger than a book adaptation. The new season has the potential to set up Percy Jackson as Disney’s next big cinematic universe, and the books already provide a road map for a larger franchise.
Percy Jackson Could Be Disney’s Next Cinematic Universe
Percy holding a knife in Percy Jackson season 2Image via Disney+
Percy Jackson & the Olympians has the potential to be Disney’s biggest new franchise, with multiple series exploring the wide universe contained in Rick Riordan’s massively successful books. The first season of the new Disney+ series was massively successful in the way that Iron Man was for Marvel in 2008. Both projects were carefully made and heartfelt projects with potential to grow into larger franchises, but they focused on telling their own self-contained stories first.
Like Iron Man, Percy Jackson Season 1 won over fans of the original story and proved its franchise potential. The series currently holds approval ratings of 91% from critics and 79% from fans on Rotten Tomatoes, which is considerably higher than the film adaptations. It also surprisingly emerged as Disney+’s highest-viewed original series of 2024, outperforming entries from other major franchises, including Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This terrific early performance left Disney more than confident enough to greenlight the show for at least two additional seasons, but there is much more room to expand this beloved fantasy universe.
There is enough content in Rick Riordan’s books to fill up at least five seasons of Percy Jackson, but there is also much more potential beyond even Season 5 if Disney is up for the challenge. Riordan’s original five books are only the beginning of the story, setting the stage for a much wider world of mythological characters that comprises multiple pantheons.
The Greek side of the franchise is the most prominent, beginning with the five original entries of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and later expanding to include the five-book sequel series Heroes of Olympus, which also introduced the Roman gods and a secondary demigod camp, Camp Jupiter.
Later, Riordan shifted the focus from demigods to the gods themselves with Trials of Apollo, another five-book series chronicling the adventures of the sun god Apollo after he is banished to Earth by his father, Zeus. Even more recently, Riordan is expanding the original Percy Jackson series with a trilogy of novels that take place before Trials of Apollo.
All this leaves Percy Jackson & the Olympians with enough material for a whopping eighteen seasons of television–but even this isn’t the extent of Disney’s potential new franchise.
Beyond the main Percy Jackson characters, Rick Riordan has expanded his fictional universe to include the mythologies of multiple other ancient civilizations. After expanding on the Greek and Roman pantheons in his main books, Riordan introduced a world of Egyptian gods and goddesses in The Kane Chronicles.
These stories take place in the same universe as Percy Jackson, with the Egyptian gods sharing a world with their Greek and Roman counterparts. Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard introduced the Norse deities in yet another trilogy that takes place in the same universe. In addition, Riordan has sometimes partnered with other authors for one-off stories to help expand his universe even further.
If Disney is willing to take the plunge with this mythological universe, it would have enough material for multiple spinoff series exploring different pantheons of ancient gods and the demigods who fight their battles. This has the potential to be Disney+’s biggest franchise of all time, and Percy Jackson’s success so far proves that there is an audience for this kind of television universe–and it might already be happening.
What Is Rick Riordan’s Mystery Series?
Percy Jackson holds his sword and shield in training in Disney’s Percy Jackson Season 1, Episode 2Image via Disney+
In a recent interview promoting the upcoming second season of Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Rick Riordan offered a surprising tease about the future of a larger franchise. The author hinted that, in addition to working on Seasons 2 and 3 of Percy Jackson, he is also helping with another fantasy series that he cannot yet name.
This should be extremely exciting for fans hoping to see more of Riordan’s extended universe adapted for television. Riordan and Disney may already be preparing for a Heroes of Olympus sequel series, which would follow the events of Percy Jackson Season 5.
While Heroes of Olympus may seem like it is still far away, now is about the time that Disney would be making plans for the series. Season 3 of Percy Jackson is already filming, suggesting that the series is looking at annual releases moving forward.
With this schedule, Percy Jackson would complete its adaptation of Riordan’s original books as early as 2028. Now is the perfect time for Disney to begin making plans for the sequel series by figuring out the right way to adapt the massive story, solidifying contracts with its main cast, and looking for actors to round out the next ensemble.
While Heroes of Olympus is certainly a distinct possibility, it seems more likely that one of Rick Riordan’s other series is gearing up for an adaptation. One of the most likely options would be The Kane Chronicles. Netflix was originally set to make a trilogy of films adapting the novels, but the project was officially scrapped in 2024.
With the rights to these books now reverted to 20th Century Television, Disney+ would be free to develop its own series based on the Egyptian-based trilogy. Alternatively, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard could be in development. This series is more directly connected to the events of the Percy Jackson books and could make more sense as the next installment in Disney+’s growing franchise.
Do Rick Riordan’s Series Ever Have an Avengers-level Crossover?
Walker Scobell as Percy JacksonDisney
Rick Riordan has built an entire universe of fantasy book series over the last several decades, which now seems to be on the verge of coming to life in a new way on Disney+. Shared universes always leave audiences wondering one question: Will there ever be a crossover? As of yet, Riordan’s books have not included any crossover on the level of the Avengers.
However, there have been several smaller connections shared between the series over the years. The Kane Chronicles and Percy Jackson came together in a miniseries entitled Demigods & Magicians, which included three short stories featuring team-ups between the Greek and Egyptian characters from the separate series.
Additionally, the titular character in Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard is introduced as Annabeth Chase’s cousin. Annabeth appears in a guest role throughout the trilogy, while Percy Jackson makes a brief appearance in one of the books as well.
There is still potential for a much larger crossover in Rick Riordan’s ever-growing shared universe, as well as the Disney+ adaptations. While these stories all take place in their own distinct corners of the universe, Riordan has gone out of his way to confirm that they all take place in the same world of mythology and monsters. With the right story and a dynamic cast of demigods, Disney could be on the verge of the perfect MCU replacement universe.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians Season 2 premieres with its first two episodes on December 10th, available on Disney+.
Release Date
December 19, 2023
Network
Disney+
Showrunner
Jonathan E. Steinberg, Dan Shotz
Writers
Joe Tracz, Andrew Miller
Walker Scobell
Percy Jackson
Leah Sava Jeffries
Annabeth Chase
