Rick Riordan is glad younger actors are cast in the upcoming TV adaptation because he thinks having older stars in the movie version was 'fundamental mistakes.'
- Oct 19, 2023
AceShowbiz - Rick Riordan blocked Hollywood after being left frustrated by the "Percy Jackson" films. The 59-year-old author has never seen either of the movie adaptations of his work - "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" and "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" - and refused to consider other takes on the books as the flicks had deviated from the source material so much.
"After the movie experience, I basically wrote off Hollywood for a long, long time. I really didn't want to have anything to do with the film industry. There were many years of me saying, 'I don't want to engage. I don't want to think about other adaptations. I'm done,' " Rick said in an interview with Variety.
"Percy Jackson" is now returning to the screen in a Disney+ TV series that will premiere in December and Rick ultimately relented on his anti-adaptation stance. He explained, "But when it started to become clear that something was going to happen with me or without me, I had a long talk with Becky, my wife. We said, 'Well, if something's going to happen, it's probably best to give it one more shot.' "
The new TV series features Walker Scobell as the titular young demigod alongside Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri and Rick is convinced that the small screen is a better fit for "Percy Jackson".
The writer said, "My feeling was always that television was the better format for 'Percy', because it allows us a larger canvas to tell more of the story. And to be more faithful to the source material, which is what the fans of the books really would love to see."
Rick felt that one of the "fundamental mistakes" made in the movies was to age up the main characters but he couldn't be more pleased with the trio that will lead the TV show. He said, "Having been through the production process, I totally get why they did that. It's much easier to work with older actors."
"(But) once you have older teens, it's a completely different dynamic. You lose so much of the wonder. The magic of being a middle grader doesn't come across the same way. There's a jaded teenage quality." Rick added of the new cast members, "They're perfect, and they've only become more perfect."
