Like many fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the Disney+ series adapted the original novels. With many exciting things still to come in Percy Jackson season 2, I’ve been looking back on how the 2010 film adaptation, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, went so wrong, and what the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV show actually did right, with the most important thing being how the show accurately portrayed how old Percy Jackson is in the first book.

Percy starts out as younger in the first book, and gradually ages into a teenager in the sequels. So you can imagine my disappointment when Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief starred a teenage protagonist, rather than accurately portraying how old Percy Jackson is in the first book. Thankfully, this mistake was rectified with the release of the TV series. Unlike the films, the show’s cast is more accurate to the ages of the characters in the novels, which is an enormous improvement.

Percy Jackson Is 12 Years Old In The First Book

Walker Scobell Was 13 When He Was Cast As Percy Jackson

In the first book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Lightning Thief, Percy is 12 years old when he learns of his Greek god origins. As each book progresses, Percy ages one year, with him turning 18 by the time we get to Wrath of the Triple Goddess. Much like the Harry Potter books, the dangers our hero faces become more and more life-threatening throughout the series, as Percy grows and learns from each experience.

The Disney+ TV series Percy Jackson and the Olympians made the smart move by having Percy be the same age as the character in the book. Walker Scobell, who plays Percy, was 13 years old when he was cast and began filming for season 1. While Scobell may have been a year older than Percy, the difference is barely perceptible.

With the actor being so close to the age of Percy from the books, it makes his character development much more believable as Scobell’s age also progresses from one season to the next. The same goes for the show's other characters, such as Clarisse LaRue, who will have a much bigger role in the Percy Jackson season 2.

Aging Up Percy Jackson Is A Big Reason The Movies Failed

Percy's Age Is Important Because Of How He Matures Throughout The Series

Shortly following the success of the Harry Potter films, 20th Century Fox purchased the rights to adapt the Percy Jackson book series for the big screen. They even hired Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone director, Christopher Columbus. In a 2009 interview, Columbus stated that the choice of casting was based on the hope that sequels based on all of the books would follow (via Highlights).

“I think with Percy Jackson it was a matter of finding the right cast to fit into these roles, sort of the perfect cast for these roles, because hopefully, God willing, we will go on to do other Percy Jackson films and you want the cast to grow with their characters.”

Ironically, Columbus’s “perfect cast” completely missed the mark. In the 2010 movie Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Logan Lerman, who was cast as the prtoagonist, was 17 years old. By casting a teenaged Percy, the filmmakers hoped to attract an older audience. However, instead of drawing in their target demographic, the Percy Jackson movie instead ended up alienating fans of the books. The film’s poor reception, along with the unsuccessful 2013 sequel Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, led to the end of the movie franchise.

In a letter to the film’s producers (which has since been deleted from his blog), Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan warned against aging up Percy, accurately predicting that it would be detrimental to the movie’s success.

“By making the characters seventeen, you’ve lost those kids as soon as they see the first movie trailer. You signal that this is a teen film, when the core audience is families. I understand that you want to appeal to teens because they are a powerful demographic, and conventional wisdom says that teens will not see movies about kids younger than themselves. Harry Potter proved this wrong, but aside from that, deviating so significantly from the source material risks pleasing no one – teens, who know the books are meant for younger kids, and the younger kids, who will be angry and disappointed that the books they love have been distorted into a teen movie.”

What Columbus and the producers of the Percy Jackson film failed to realize was that by aging up the character of Percy, they didn’t leave enough room for him to mature as the stories progressed. And, as Riordan pointed out, a teenage Percy in a franchise meant for kids appeals to neither teens nor the books’ fans. Fortunately, the Disney+ series managed to get it right, just like the Percy Jackson books got Greek mythology right.