Which Streaming Service Has the ‘Percy Jackson’ Movies?
The Percy Jackson series is making ground, but it will be a while before fans see the Disney+ show. In the meantime, where can the Percy Jackson movies be watched? The franchise has jumped around the various streaming services in recent years. But it’s all streamlined now. And when you’re done streaming the movies, there’s much more Percy Jackson content to consume.
Are the ‘Percy Jackson’ movies on Disney+?
The original Percy Jackson movies were produced by 20th Century Studios. The first, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, came out in 2010. And the sequel, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, came out in 2013.
The films starred Logan Lerman as Percy, Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth, and Brandon T. Jackson as Grover. Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman, Rosario Dawson, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd, and Steve Coogan, and Catherine Keener also rounded out the cast. Stanley Tucci, Nathan Fillion, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Missi Pyle joined for Sea of Monsters.
The movies are based on Rick Riordan’s novels of the same name. But Riordan famously doesn’t like them. In fact, he’s never seen them because reading the scripts alone was like seeing his “life’s work going through a meat grinder.”
He doesn’t feel the same way about Lerman, Daddario, Jackson, and the rest of the Percy Jackson cast.
“I certainly have nothing against the very talented actors,” Riordan tweeted. “Not their fault. I’m just sorry they got dragged into that mess.”
Now that Riordan is developing a Percy Jackson TV show for Disney, the streaming service has acquired both The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters. Both of the movies can be streamed now on Disney+. They’re also available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and iTunes. They were previously on Hulu.
Will there be a third ‘Percy Jackson’ movie?
While we wait for the highly anticipated Disney+ series, there’s plenty to learn about the franchise. Riordan’s five Percy Jackson books have always drawn comparisons to Harry Potter. And the comparisons continued when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone director Chris Columbus directed The Lightning Thief.
The movie also came out the same year as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I. And audiences were eager to find the next big book-to-film franchise since J.K. Rowling’s franchise was soon ending. The Percy Jackson source material is steeped in Greek mythology and has a massive fanbase. It has all the trappings of a franchise similar to Harry Potter‘s success, but the movies didn’t meet their full potential. The Sea of Monsters team had a feeling there wouldn’t be a third Percy Jackson movie, so they incorporated some of the plot of the last PJO book into the sequel.
There are no plans for a third Percy Jackson movie. But Riordan is confident the Percy Jackson Disney+ series “will be the show we’ve been waiting for.”
Are ‘Percy Jackson’ books good for adults?
The show is moving along slowly, as all good things should. Riordan and his collaborator/wife, Becky Riordan, keep fans up to date on the show’s development on Riordan’s blog and their Twitter accounts. They kicked off the season 1 writers’ room on July 12 (Annabeth Chase’s birthday!) and are currently searching for a director who is a fan of the books.
Speaking of the books, there are so many to read! The Percy Jackson books are Y.A., but the Y.A. label has never stopped millennials from re-reading Harry Potter. If you enjoy Greek mythology and are looking for a writing style that makes you feel like you’re an eager teen at a book fair again, Percy Jackson is a great series to dive into. And there are two Percy Jackson spin-offs: The Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo.
Finally, there’s a Percy Jackson Broadway musical! The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson musical was a successful Off-Broadway and touring show before it came to Broadway for a limited run in 2020. The Lightning Thief cast album is available on all music streaming services. And The Lightning Thief book writer, Joe Tracz, is on the writing team for the Disney+ show.
There certainly isn’t a shortage of Percy Jackson material for fans to enjoy before the reboot debuts on Disney+.
