The Percy Jackson and the Olympian series written by Rick Riordon has recently been reintroduced with a new generation of children as well as returning fans showing an interest in the series with the new Disney+ show Percy Jackson and the Olympian being released December 2024. Just like its title, it’s based on the book series and directed by Riordan himself. The modernized version of the books has been causing a lot of commotion due to many agreeing that there are so many major changes from book to show. Let’s see what major events changed and if it was for the better or worse!
Percy Jackson Summarized
A series based on a twelve-year-old boy named Percy Jackson learns to be a child of the Sea God Poseidon, making him a half-blood. Percy is very soon sent out on a quest to find a bolt that will stop a war between his father and Zeus, God of Thunder, but not alone. He is accompanied on this quest by his best friend who is unknowingly a satyr, Grover, and Annabeth, a daughter of Athena Goddess of Wisdom. They are met by very difficult bumps along the way with Gods and monsters being at every turn. From here on out, i’m going to leave off the rest of the story because you are going to have to either read or watch the show for yourself.
Show Vs. Book
So much was changed but as well so much was kept so similar in the book adaptation. I loved so many of the changes but was so sad when some extremely important key details were either removed or rewritten. I’m going to jump majorly to the end because personally, it’s the most important part of the book. So much was cut out or rewritten so differently and it just aggravates me because once Percy leaves Olympus that is where the show went in a complete direction. The key parts were once Sally returned from Hades, Luke’s betrayal, and just the end from there on. The writers and directors completely reordered the order of these events, although I did enjoy how they showed Sally’s return at the end instead of the middle of the last chapter. But the true disappointment was Luke’s Betrayal. It’s just so detailed so perfectly in the book detailing the power and how persuaded Luke was by Kronos.
It showed his madness as well as how little he cared about Percy. But in the show instead of the scorpion biting him there is a sword duel between these two characters which just is a much more amazing 
adaptation. The way these two communicated with the infamous phrase “I didn’t think you’d give them to Grover to wear”. It just shows the difference in how Luke will impact the show and the book. During this scene in the book, Luke is much more cold and evil while in the book he is more like brainwashed by Kronos and attempts to manipulate as well as sympathize with Percy. But the best addition that was made to the show was how Annabeth appeared, by being hidden by her hat, to witness all that Luke had done and said.
Moving on to Sally’s change in storyline, I am just so mad that they did not keep the scene of Poseidon gifting Percy back Medusa’s head and Sally using it to get revenge on Gabe. In the show, this scene was just so weak and did not measure up to the book. For me, these were the major parts of the book vs. TV show that just majorly affected me because I generally liked this modernized adaptation and the changes that were made were great for the plot. I can as well just sense Riordan scheming for the show to match up better to sequels of his book for the next seasons.
