You all know about the Percy Jackson book series by Rick Riordan, right? Well, there’s a live-action series in development for Disney+, and they recently put out a teaser trailer:
Discuss.
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as long as it’s being made by different people than she-hulk 
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That looks… better than the movie. Plus it’s a series, so time constraints are less of an issue. I might watch it.
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I’m surprised that I didn’t know about this until now
There’s not much to go off, but I’d agree that it looks promising.
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That looks like the books, for sure. I haven’t read any of them except for his retellings of some of the myths which was not a point in the author’s favor for me, but that looks about like what I read.
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While I haven’t read the book series (or any of its sequel/spin-off series) in a while, I’m still very interested to see where this goes. I’m glad that Rick is playing a large part in its development
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I loved the original series as a kid but it’s also been a very long time since I last read them. I do have some reservations just cause adaptations in general have been dissapointing me but this definitely doesn’t look bad at all. Will probably give it a chance.
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I’m honestly pretty mixed.
I definitely agree that the sets and costuming in the trailer looks accurate to the books. The movies had the basic ideas for the characters, which was a decent start, but the execution wasn’t so great. Many key characters were cut out, and they twisted the plots of the first two books so that they barely resembled their literary counterparts. And, of course, it didn’t feel much like the books. It ended up feeling like a Harry Potter/Clash Of The Titans mashup.
The fact that Rick Riordan is involved with the screenwriting (and set/costume design, apparently) is promising, because we might get more of the “feel” of the books. However, my problems lie with the casting of the main trio.
When the casting was revealed earlier this year, I was pretty surprised. They got an actor with sandy brown hair to play Percy…even though he’s supposed to have black hair…but that’s not a big deal, they can just dye it or give him a wig. Grover ended up getting a racebend…I mean, I guess the movies did that too. But Annabeth is gonna be played by a black girl. Yes, that’s right. This character:
Who’s been consistently described as a blonde-haired, gray-eyed Caucasian California girl across fifteen books over nearly 20 years, is gonna be African-American in this show.
I’m sorry, what?
Many people were upset about this, and I hate to say it, but I agree with them. The whole point of the show is that it’s gonna be more accurate to the books than the movies ever were, right? So why make this huge change? Well, Rick Riordan did post this on his blog:
To sum it up, he felt that Leah was right for this role because she captured the “feel” of Annabeth better than any other auditioning young actress could. And he said that actors’ appearances were only secondary for him. I can kind of see where he’s coming from, especially with the “racism” part of his post, but if appearances really weren’t so important, then why did he spend all these years drilling it into our heads that this is what Annabeth is supposed to look like?
And, of course, when I saw the trailer, I slapped my forehead when I saw that they didn’t even bother to give Walker Scobell black hair. Really, guys? You couldn’t even get a simple thing like that right? Superficial as this may seem, it’s put a damper on my excitement for the show.
Of course, there are a good number of people that ARE excited, and that they stand by Rick Riordan and his casting decisions. They say that if Rick Riordan approves of these changes, then they’re fine with it as well. Because the original creator is always right about what should be done with their work, right?
Right?
RIGHT?
Nonetheless, I most likely will watch the show. I feel some pretty deep nostalgia for Percy Jackson, and I am curious to see how well the show adapts the books. Because after the poorly done movies, a faithful adaptation would be most welcome.
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Wait what the heck did Jeff Kenney do I am out of loop
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He wrote the script for The Long Haul movie. And the Disney+ DOAWK movie, too.
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I had assumed that the girl in the thumbnail was annabelle
Given how many people hated the movie Anabelle for having brown hair, I can only imagine the outrage over this 
Oh well. At least the actors seem to be the appropriate age for the characters
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Annabelle?
Are you secretly Dionysus?
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His racism argument is a load of bull.
People want to see things portrayed the way they were described, as best as possible, because that’s what they’re used to and have grown to like. Is it “racist” to want the shirts to be orange, or the kids to be kids and not teens? No. So why the Karzahni is it racist to want a character to match their described race? No, Rick. I am not racist. You are an idiot.
What’s worse is that he has a point… at first. Maybe Leah is the best actress for Anabeth. All he had to say was “she was the best actress for the role, so we sacrificed accuracy a little. I never particularly imagined her as any race, and just gave one so the reader could have a better mental image.” There. Point made without calling everyone who doesn’t like change racist.
and decided she must have been hired simply to fill a quota or tick a diversity box.
You have decided that I couldn’t possibly mean what I have always said: That the true nature of the character lies in their personality.
You are judging her appropriateness for this role solely and exclusively on how she looks.
And you, Rick, are assuming the worst of people who simply don’t like change. You could just say “she was the most qualified actor for the role” and people would have accepted that, Because you are the original author and know the character best. I don’t like the change, but I am more than happy to give Leah Jeffries a chance if you say so.
Tldr: all you had to say was “she was the best actress for the role.” Instead you said “people who don’t like her are racist.” Not a good move, Riordan.
ironic that this post comes from someone named Racie, ain’t it?
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The thing I got from this discussion is that authors are hacks.
I cannot wait to join their ranks!
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meh - if they butcher this like every other show/movie nowadays, imma gonna be sad, hopefully it will be good! - i probably will make a post with my full thoughts on some o the controversys but i’ll save it for later
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I now have reasons to believe that Disney stands for the worst in writing: they would rather sacrifice accuracy to the source material for political correctness, even if it makes characters unrecognizable or causes events that shouldn’t be possible in the story. (Hint: live action remakes). I wish more authors would either take a stand for the accuracy part, or just admit their own reasoning instead of saying, “I gotta change this before I’m accused of (insert something bad here).)” It just makes me angry that there never seems to be a single authors who will go to the trouble of making sure that the movies are accurate to their books.
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There are reasons for this, whether they change your mind or not on their action is up to you. But for plenty of authors, they don’t own the film rights to their books - that belongs to the publishers. What do you think the publishers are more interested in? An accurate and well made movie, or getting extra money and free advertising for more people to possibly buy the book version?
And because of the movie and TV game, authors are no different than “experts” or consultants. As far as the studio is concerned, they exist as marketing material and if they don’t perform the act the money goes bye. Even if they aren’t held to some contract from the publisher, plus additional from the studios, the studios themselves are going to force them to do things and give restrictions. So if they want “friends” and to survive, they’re going to have to play along.
Unfortunate, yes, but common in all industries.
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Man, there sure are a lot of takes in this topic, aren’t there? Guess i should throw my hat in the ring.
Personally, I’m just happy that this show will be portraying the characters with their proper ages, unlike the movies the prophecy (which is pretty integral to a whole crap ton of the drama in this series) will actually carry some weight. Honestly, I don’t really mind what race they make the characters as long as the story stays the same and can elicit some kind of emotional response from me, which Disney really seems to be failing at currently.
Artistic accuracy is dead, and Hoseryx killed it.
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Soon we get that in a movie too.