Feb. 13, 2024
Based on Rick Riordan’s novel series, popular TV show Percy Jackson and the Olympians has been renewed for season 2 in Disney+. By: Dylan Low
According
to Disney Season 1 streamed longer than 110 million hours across both Disney+
and Hulu platforms. When divided, the season’s runtime works out to 20.6
million total viewership. Meaning, the audience increased throughout its
month-long run as it was exclusively unveiled that Episode 1 hit 13.3 million
views in its first six days.
The
series was also popular amongst critics, obtaining 92% on Rotten Tomatoes with Variety
‘s TV critic Aramide Tinubu commending the show as “a gorgeous, intriguing
narrative about self-discovery, courage and friendship.”
The
series success is important for Disney with executives giving the series a Star
Wars-sized budget and investing on its potential to start a major
franchise. In a cover story for Variety, president of 20th Television Karey
Burke claimed that a major goal for them in this development process was to
“have the show live alongside the worlds created by our sister studios at
Lucasfilm and Marvel. We really wanted to spare no expense to make sure that
this series felt as big and imaginative.”
Percy
Jackson and the Olympians season one tells the story of
Percy (Walker Scobell), a 12-year-old modern demigod, who comes to recognise
his newly discovered supernatural powers when sky god Zeus (the late Lance
Reddick) alleges him of stealing his master lightning bolt. Percy and his
friends Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) go on a
journey across America to find it and restore order to Olympus.
Percy
Jackson and the Olympians was made by Riordan and Jon
Steinberg, who was also showrunner alongside Dan Shotz. Riordan serves the role
of executive producer, joined by his wife Rebecca Riordan, Steinberg, Shotz,
James Bobin, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, Anders Engström, Jet
Wilkinson and Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell and D.J.
Goldberg. The series originates from Disney Branded Television, with 20th
Television as the production studio.
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