Rick Riordan announces new Percy Jackson TV series coming to Disney+

Some things take more than one try to get right. The extremely popular Percy Jackson & the Olympians book series by Rick Riordan (which has since spawned multiple spin-offs) has already been adapted for the big screen in the form of 2010's The Lightning Thief and its 2013 sequel, Sea Monsters. But members of the books' passionate fan base have long wished for a more faithful adaptation, and now they're getting another chance. Riordan announced Thursday that the Percy Jackson books will soon be turned into a live-action TV series for Disney+.

"Hey Percy Jackson fans, for the past decade, you've worked hard to champion a faithful on-screen adaptation of Percy Jackson's world," Riordan wrote in a note to fans on Twitter. "Some of you have even suggested it would be a good series for Disney+. We couldn't agree more!"

The statement continues, "We can't say much more at this stage but we are very excited about the idea of a live-action series of the highest quality, following the storyline of the original Percy Jackson five-book series, starting with The Lightning Thief in season one. Rest assured that Becky & I will be involved in person at every step of the show. There will be much more news in the future, but for now, we have a lot of work to do! Buckle up, demigods. It's going to be a fantastic, exciting ride!"

The character of Percy Jackson is a teenager when we first meet him in the pages of The Lightning Thief, bouncing around schools with his single mother, Sally. After they are attacked by monsters from Greek mythology, Percy learns that he is the half-human son of one of the Olympian gods, and is brought to Camp Half-Blood to learn alongside other demigods. He befriends fellow demigod Annabeth Chase and a satyr named Grover; soon, it falls to this team of friends to save the world from something even older and scarier than the gods of Mount Olympus. The original Percy Jackson & the Olympians series consisted of five books (Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian followed The Lightning Thief), but Percy has since made appearances in Riordan's follow-up series like Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo.

Everett Collection From left, Brandon T. Jackson, Logan Lerman, and Alexandra Daddario in "Percy Jackson & the Olympians."

The Percy Jackson movies starred Logan Lerman in the lead role, with Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth and Brandon T. Jackson as Grover. Shortly after the Disney+ news was announced, Logan tweeted, "Excited to see this! Hope it gets the adaptation the books deserve."

Last year, Percy also made his debut on the Broadway stage in a Lightning Thief musical. That raises the question of whether any of those songs might show up in the series. In Riordan's words, there's much more to come.

This article has been updated with Lerman's tweet.

Related content:

• Camp Half-Blood and the Minotaur star in first images from illustrated edition of The Lightning Thief

• Rick Riordan explains how to translate Norse myths for kids in new Magnus Chase series