A Recap of the Short Cinematic Life of the ‘Percy Jackson’ Franchise

I’m sure we’ve all noticed we’re officially in a Percy Jackson renaissance—unless, of course, you never really left the fandom ever since your first encounter with Percy, Annabeth and the rest of the gang— inspired mostly by Disney’s new adaptation of Rick Riordan’s incredibly fortunate book series that marries regular early to mid 2000s America with Greek mythology.

This new show has everyone understandably very excited, since everything seems pretty great and incredibly spot on—from the age-accurate casting of the protagonists and the various Greek gods and goddesses down to the very song that was used to accompany all its promotional materials—and yet we can’t forget that this isn’t the first time Riordan’s characters have been brought to life on screen.

We might not like to think about this collectively as a fandom, but there has actually been an attempt to bring a Percy Jackson cinematic franchise to life sometime around the 2010s. So let’s dive into it right at the very beginning of this new era of demigod content—and pick out some of the very few things that deserve praise about them.

First up, The Lightning Thief

The very first adaptation of Riordan’s The Lightning Thief—the one that started off the wider Camp Half-Blood Chronicles Universe—is 2010’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. 

The movie is directed by Chris Columbus and stars Logan Lerman in the titular role of Perseus “Percy” Jackson, a regular New York teenager who discovers that not only he’s the son of the Greek god of the sea Poseidon, but he’s also suspected to have stolen the all-powerful lightning bolt from Zeus, the god of thunder and king of Olympus. This means that every other god, demigod, monster and mythical creature that roams America—where the gods moved to follow what they consider the heart of the so-called Western world—is currently looking for him and the lightning bolt that’s supposed to be in his possession.

The Lightning Thief movie sadly has very little in common with The Lightning Thief book, and the changes go beyond what might be normally expected when it comes to adapting stories across media. That’s why it was never much liked by fans of the book, even though Lerman’s performance as Percy was very well-received—sparking a campaign to have him take on the part of Poseidon in the Disney Plus show. The role did end up going to Toby Stephens, something that I can’t really complain about.

Then, The Sea of Monsters

Sadly things went from bad to worse when it came to the second—and last—movie adaptation of the Percy Jackson saga, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, released in 2013 and directed by Thor Freudenthal.

The Sea of Monsters is based on the second novel of Riordan’s book series, which was published in 2006. In it, Percy joins fellow demigod Clarisse—a daughter of Ares—on her quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Sea of Monsters. Through his usual series of adventures, Percy ends up battling his once-friend Luke Castellan, son of Hermes and now in the service of the series’ main villain, the titan Kronos, and brings the Golden Fleece back to Camp Half-Blood—where its power resurrects Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus.

This movie took The Lightning Thief’s trend of diverging from its original material to a whole new level and was even less liked by fans than its predecessor. Something that might have played a part in the fact that the planned third movie of the franchise, The Titan’s Curse, was planned but actually never produced.

(featured image: 20th Century Fox)