‘Percy Jackson’ Producer Teases Season 2
One of the biggest stories to come out of Disney’s Q1 earnings call was the announcement that Percy Jackson and the Olympians has been renewed for a second season on Disney+.
With over 110 million hours streamed to date, the series has been the biggest streaming show ever produced by Disney Branded Television.
Polygon
At last Saturday’s Television Critics Association’s Winter Press Tour, Craig Erwich, President of Disney Television Group, touted the series’ success.
Percy Jackson. Photo: Disney
“During its debut week, Percy Jackson was the No. 1 most-watched episode in the U.S., beating established series like The Crown and Reacher. To date, over 110 million hours of Percy Jackson have been streamed. This is a transformational show, but these numbers only tell part of the story,” he said. “The show has sparked memes, social conversation—and on TikTok, #PercyJackson received over a billion views. This show is so popular that the books returned to No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List following its debut.”
‘Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters’
Just as Season 1 of the series was based on the first Percy Jackson book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Season 2 then will follow the plot of the second book in the series- Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.
According to the series’ co-creator and executive producer, Jonathan E. Steinberg, Season 2 of Percy Jackson will follow the book’s material but put its own spin on the story.
Photo: Disney
“I think the goal is to take the book and find its soul, and the things that make the experience what it is for a reader, and then try to plant that in the ground a little bit and let it grow into something else,” he said. “I think we were successful in engineering that in Season 1.”
Scripts Have Been Written
When discussing Season 2, Steinberg confirmed that a “couple of scripts” have already been written and that “they’re in really good shape.”
Photo: Disney
To capitalize on the show’s momentum, the cast and crew want to begin production as soon as possible.
“I think we all feel the demand and response for people wanting to see more of this, Steinberg explained. “But we want to do it right and make sure that the second season of the show lives up to—or surpasses—the first.”
Photo: Also Disney
Still, as the producer notes, “to boot up this machine again is an undertaking. There are a lot of trains leaving the station, all at the same time.”
Photo: Disney
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1 is now streaming on Disney+.
