The Percy Jackson & The Olympians series may finally be getting a decent adaptation on Disney+, but Rick Riordan’s beloved story will have to change its themes for a modern audience. The new take on the popular YA books is a huge opportunity to address something that the original adaptation - which was intended to kick off a series to rival Harry Potter's success - fell foul of.
The Percy Jackson series of books told an engaging tale about the children of Greek gods going on heroic quests and fighting against the evil Titans, but the story was very America-centric. Riordan’s original books heavily emphasize the importance of “Western civilization,” to the point of ignoring other culture’s mythologies. An adaptation could have been the perfect chance to fix this problem and incorporate cultural elements from around the world, but the Percy Jackson & The Olympians movies from 20th Century Fox failed to do this. In fact, Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters both failed in many aspects, receiving extremely negative reviews.
Now, almost a decade later, Riordan is in talks with Disney to re-adapt the Percy Jackson book series for Disney+, finally giving the writer a chance to address the sins of the original movies. Not only would this adaptation be a huge improvement from those movies, but it could also solve the cultural problems of the original book series too.
Percy Jackson Should Include Gods From Around The World
In the Percy Jackson & The Olympians books, the Greek gods live and work in the United States. The book explains that this is because the U.S., specifically New York City, is the “center of Western civilization.” While this is a convenient way to explain why Greek gods are in a new country, this explanation can read as very self-centered to a non-American audience. And while this wasn’t the case when Riordan published Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief in 2007, the phrase “Western civilization” has since become a buzzword for white supremacists online.
However, there is a very easy way to solve this problem in the adaptation: include a diversity of characters from around the world. Instead of Camp Half-Blood being the only demigod camp, the Percy Jackson TV series could explore demigod camps all around the world and take the main characters on international adventures. Percy Jackson & The Olympians could even introduce gods from other mythologies, which Riordan himself has explored in other book series like The Kane Chronicles. Not only would this help eliminate the phrase “Western civilization” from the series, but it could also introduce a ton of new exciting characters for fans to love.
Representation is Important, Even for Gods
Though these changes to Percy Jackson & The Olympians may seem trivial, including stories from many different cultures could actually make a huge difference for audiences. Rick Riordan himself has publicly expressed how important representation is, and he has made an effort to include more diversity in his books over the years. Now, the Disney+ adaptation of his work has a chance to do the same. This adaptation of Percy Jackson & The Olympians doesn’t have to just be a re-do of the movies but instead can transform the story into something even more interesting and relevant to a modern audience.