This week on Twitter, author Rick Riordan spoke out on his feelings about the film adaptations for his Percy Jackson and the Olympians franchise, one which grossed over $430 million in total box office revenue but was met with lukewarm critical and fan reception. Many fans were disappointed in 2010’s The Lightning Thief and 2013’s Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, citing poor casting and straying too far away from the original storyline as reasons for feeling this way. Such reception was key in the halting of the series, which had the potential to have a multi-film run in the vein of a Harry Potter.
Riordan himself apparently shares the same sentiments as his fans, admitting on Twitter that he had not even seen the films, and that reading the scripts for them was like “having my life’s work going through a meat grinder.” He also noted how he believes that Disney should “censor the entire thing,” and have “Just two hours of blank screen,” instead. Ouch.
This is not the first time Riordan has openly criticized the film series, as he penned a lengthly dissertation in 2018 on his website explaining how little his involvement in the production of said films was. In this article, he explains how he hopes any future adaptations would be “faithful to the books and fun to watch.”
That being said, Disney+ announced in May that they would be developing a new live-action Percy Jackson TV series, one in which beaming Riordan says he would be heavily involved in. Hopefully this series gives fans and author alike a better chance to watch Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and more in the way that they were meant to be seen.
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