Percy Jackson TV Show.

As you might have heard, Percy Jackson and the Olympians got the official green light from Disney+ this week! Here's my announcement video below.

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This is great news, obviously, and we couldn't have done it without the enthusiasm and support of millions of Percy fans making themselves heard. Thank you for that! Becky and I will be involved at every step of the process, making sure this is a show we think you'll be proud of. Also, huge props to our great development team, our show-runners, and our partners at 20th TV Studio and Disney+. Everyone has been incredible to work with, and it's wonderful to be part of a group committed to a common goal of doing PJO right! Becky and I have now been working on this project for over two years. It has become a full-time job that I never envisioned having or wanting, but I have learned a lot, and if the final product is a great show, it will have been worth it.

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Just to give you an idea, here are some of the agenda items we are working on, and please remember that these are my own opinions, guesses and insights as someone who has never gone through this process before. What I say should not be taken as 'official' word, nor I do not speak for the show as a whole, or the studio, or Disney, etc., etc.

Scripts:

Our writers' room continues to meet every week, and I am always in every meeting. The team continues to be absolutely wonderful. We have delivered the first four scripts (which is what we needed for the green light) and are now working on some revisions based on the studio's feedback. The executives had really smart comments, and it's always good to have fresh sets of eyes on the scripts. We are also moving ahead to outline the remaining episodes of season one. A large part of this spring will be spent finishing up the season one scripts. I can tell you with 100% confidence that this season follows The Lightning Thief faithfully, although we're adding a lot of interesting nuances, depth, Easter eggs and backstory that will keep the story fresh and fun even if you know the books inside and out. Everyone in the writers' room is a fan of the books — thank the gods! — and the best part of our job is when we think of things that make the other writers squeal with excitement, because as book fans, it is something they want to see on screen. You have a lot of advocates in the room, demigods, including me.

Casting:

As previously announced, we have launched into the audition process for the three main roles: Percy, Annabeth and Grover. The perfect trio has to be found first, as that will inform a lot of the other casting choices. It's not just a matter of finding a great actor for each role. It's a matter of finding a group of great actors that have good chemistry when they act together. That process is on-going, but we are making good progress. Don't expect any announcements on that front for a while. I would guess it'll be several more months, but that's just my own estimate.

Other casting: We've only started the earliest brainstorming about this. I am not on social media anymore, but there was some chuckling yesterday in the writers' room about posts they saw on various social media, claiming "official word" of this person or that person cast as this role or that role. Nope . . . not so much. Those conversations have barely started. No decisions have been made.

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What about animated content? I get this question a lot, and it's certainly something I have thought about. I love animation. My family all are massive fans of Japanese anime. At some point, I would love to explore animated adaptations of my worlds. But this inaugural PJO adaptation is live action because that's the way I wanted it. I felt strongly that this is where we need to start. Is it harder and more expensive? Absolutely. But my personal feeling is that live-action, rightly or wrongly, carries much more heft and cache, and gets a lot more attention from general viewers than animation. Again, if the PJO series does well — and we have every expectation that it will — then many other things are possible. But that is all to be determined.

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Dan Hennah, our production designer, whose team is busy creating the visual world in which Percy will travel. His office walls are covered with beautiful artwork of places you would recognize from The Lightning Thief: Mount Olympus, the Underworld, Aunty Em's, Sally Jackson's apartment, and many more, all done in a way that is true to the story, but also fresh and exciting. Dan Hennah, by the way, is from New Zealand, and spent the past few decades working on the Lord of the Rings with Peter Jackson, so Dan knows a few things about bringing magical worlds to life.

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On Monday, while hordes of grumpy Bengal fans headed back to the airport, Becky and I had lunch with our film agent and studio VP at the San Vicente Bungalows, then had a kick-off meeting with the feature team at Disney+ and my co-writer Aditi Brennan Kapil to discuss the adaptation for Daughter of the Deep. We anticipate diving into the script for the film soon!

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Phenom said:

With what's going on with Disney right now, color me unimpressed and less than eager to see what they're going to do to trash another one of my favorite childhood/young adult series.

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Phenom said:

Have you even tried to read his Magnus Chase books? I thought I was being spoonfed enough woke ideology in my daily life, now it's bled over into fantasy books where it HAS NO REASON to exist. It is not essential to the story and contributes nothing. I loved his modern take on classic mythological tales because it introduced a lot of current people to the fun that exists there. Instead, he's taken a dive into losing my business forever - not that he probably cares.

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