“Look, I Didn’t Want to Be a Half-Blood”

“Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.” An iconic start to a personal favorite book series, and now the opening line for the long-awaited TV series premiering on Disney+ on December 20th, 2023. That’s right, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The announcement of the TV adaptation of Rick Riordan’s popular book series shook the Internet and rejuvenated the powerful fanbase that had gone overlooked for a long time. The book series does have a movie adaptation, one that the fanbase despises and the author refused to watch after the creators wouldn’t communicate with the author and represented the books poorly. The announcement of the TV series with Riordan as one of the screenwriters; the news of him and his wife, Becky,  on set every day, with the show in his vision has excited fans to no end.

Personally, I am very attached to the series, even getting a tattoo of main character Percy Jackson’s sword, “Riptide,” while on preview in Crete, Greece (right nearby Knossos, the ruins of a palace that in Greek myth held the mighty Minotaur, the first monster Percy battles in the series ). I have been obsessed with Greek mythology since I was 8 years old, having full bookshelves entirely filled with Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology (but specifically Greek), and later adding Rick Riordan’s books, all based in Greek, Roman, Norse, and Egyptian mythology. Riordan is an accomplished, best-selling, author with 66 books to his name and a dedication to his fans like no other author I’ve seen. 

The announcement of the TV show occurred in the spring of 2020, and I, along with many others, have been tracking the progress of the show for 3 years now, watching as they cast the show, were in filming, post-production, and now seeing the trailers come out, pointing out every little detail and reference to the book. We have about a month now until the show airs and with the writers and actors strike coming to an end (the longest Hollywood has ever seen), promotion of the show is at an all-time high, and lifelong fans are about to witness something we’ve dreamed of for a long time. 

Hopes are high, to say the least. December 20 is the day! And fans worldwide will be tuning in to see if the show lives up to its out-of-this-world expectations.