With the recent Percy Jackson show’s first season coming out on Disney+, many fans were worried as to how well it would hold up to the original book written by Rick Riordan– especially after the movies released in 2010 and 2013 following the story of the first two books, Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief; and Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Sea of Monsters were poorly received by many fans who criticized it for poor writing that eliminated details from the books that felt important for story and world-building. Since the show also has its fair share of differences from the original book, it’s useful to know what differences can be found when comparing the book and the movie, versus the book and the show. For those who haven’t gone through any of the material, starting from the books is likely the best plan of action to get the full story and order of events, as originally intended by Rick Riordan.
Movie differences Show differences
While they share a similar amount of differences between the source material of the first book, the first movie removed a decent amount of character building such as the disdain Percy holds towards his father, Poseidon, and in some cases, changed the events of the story such as removing Ares’ influence from the story entirely and especially seeming to shoehorn in a fight earlier than it occurred and simultaneously breaking an element of the world created in the books that children of Poesideon are not permitted to be in the air as it is Zeus’ domain. The show, on the other hand, which is written by original author Rick Riordan himself, removes few elements from the original story and even adds in new events that help assist in showcasing character development between the main characters in the timeframe provided by eight 40-minute episodes. It also simply helps the viewer get more acquainted with the mythological world built by the Percy Jackson franchise along with just allowing for the viewer to become more invested in the series.
