At one point, the Percy Jackson books were some of the most popular young adult novels. Although they weren't all on the same level of success, these Greek mythology-inspired tales were still met with a massive following. The result was, of course, an inevitable movie adaptation, though some fans may have preferred these films stay in Tartarus.
Now, a Disney+ TV series aims to reboot the franchise, giving it new life several years after the film series tried to capitalize on it. Nevertheless, given some of the radical differences already present for the reboot, some fans might wonder if there will ever be a third entry in the Percy Jackson films. The answer is that they might be left waiting for quite a while.
Why Were the Percy Jackson Movies Considered Failures?
The first adaptation of the Percy Jackson books was Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which adapted the first book in the series. Coming out in 2010, the movie had a production budget of $95 million. Its box office intake of around $225 million wasn't great at all, but it was enough to get a second film made. This was also in spite of the fact that the reviews were pretty poor, with many seeing it as a cheap cash-in on the young adult/fantasy craze first started by Harry Potter. Even Rick Riordan, the author of the novels, publicly lambasted the movie's script, making his own disdain for it quite well-known.
The sequel, Sea of Monsters, came out three years later on a slightly smaller budget of $90 million. Despite the marginally better reception, it resulted in a slightly smaller box office intake of $200 million. It's been almost ten years since the film was released, with the planned third movie still unmade. Star Logan Lerman initially said that a 3rd film was off the table, but he later recanted this news.
Will There Ever Be a Third Percy Jackson Film?
Though Logan Lerman may have initially spoken too soon about a sequel to Sea of Monsters being canceled, it's inarguably the case at this point. The original Percy Jackson cast is far too old to reprise their roles from the original series, and recasting them just for a third movie that would likely bomb would be incredibly stupid. Never mind the fact that the Disney+ show is rebooting the franchise, and Disney likely doesn't want competing versions of a franchise, especially when it's far from being at its strongest.
Riordan has worked more closely with the development of the Percy Jackson show, likely to keep it from coming out like the movies that he hated so much. This lack of love for the original adaptations of his books means that he would probably veto any potential third movie and use the show to wipe the slate clean. Hopefully, for fans and Riordan himself, the show is a much better representation of Percy Jackson than the failures that were the films.