Why Hasn’t Percy Jackson Been Renewed For Season 4 Yet?
Rick Riordan might have the answer.
After studios and streamers spent a decade dismantling traditional TV models, the pendulum is starting to swing back to the status quo. A handful of shows have survived their sophomore slumps; where very few used to make it past a second or third season, we’re now enjoying shows with true longevity. More than that, the season renewals are coming more and more frequently, with some projects even managing to drop new seasons consecutively. Thanks to shows like Invincible, Fallout, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the dreaded two-year gap between installments is beginning to close. Some are even getting renewals long before their next season is due to premiere: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, one of Disney’s most-watched shows, was picked up for a third season several months before Season 2 hit Disney+. It’s announcements like these that affirm a studio’s faith in a show — but what happens when that support starts to dry up?
Percy Jackson Season 3 wrapped production before Season 2 had even aired its final episode, and it’ll air on Disney+ just one year after the Season 2 premiere. Disney is clearly excited about the adventures to come — it even attached a short preview for the new season to the Season 2 credits. It seemed like the show had finally found some momentum as it worked to adapt the first five novels in Rick Riordan’s eponymous series. Given that most of the cast is still fairly young, that accelerated timeline made sense. And as we get closer to Season 3’s December release, fans have been expecting a Season 4 renewal any day now. With only six months to go, there’s a sense that production might be falling behind. Why hasn’t Percy Jackson been renewed, and does this spell trouble for the TV show?
Disney might be playing the waiting game when it comes to more seasons of Percy Jackson.
Riordan, who serves as an executive producer on Percy Jackson, recently weighed in on the silence surrounding Percy Jackson Season 4. During a Goodreads Q&A in May, the author admitted he was just as in the dark as fans were about a renewal. “I am afraid I don’t have any information,” Riordan wrote, “[but] I would not necessarily be worried. Sometimes it takes longer to announce than other times… though of course I’d like to hear something sooner.”
Percy Jackson’s Season 3 renewal was definitely an anomaly, however pleasant. Before the days of streaming, a show was more likely to pick up a renewal toward the tail end of its current season. That’s still a fairly common practice with shows that follow the traditional release route — and as confident as Disney might have been in Season 3 of Percy Jackson, Riordan said the studio “may be waiting to see how Season 3 does” before giving another the green light.
Riordan also cited some behind-the-scenes tumult as the reason for Disney’s caution. This past February, a new CEO took over for Disney’s last top boss, Bob Iger. Josh D’Amaro’s first moves at Disney were controversial ones, starting with a wave of layoffs in an effort to consolidate the company into “one Disney.” With so much of the top brass focused on “unified brand storytelling” across Disney’s films, shows, experiences, and tourism, there might not be much time to consider the minutiae. According to Forbes (and Disney’s target audience), the studio’s reputation has been on a steady decline these past few years. Disney’s not quite in crisis mode, but Riordan guessed that D’Amaro and his team would be taking a more “conservative” approach to existing IP.
There are so many reasons why Percy Jackson hasn’t gotten a renewal yet, but not all hope is lost.
There’s also the matter of budget. Percy Jackson is also a pricey show, with demanding visual effects and sprawling sets that need to look as realistic as possible. Disney needs a solid audience to justify that investment, otherwise the series could go the way of The Acolyte or Willow — two expensive productions that failed to generate an audience that met the studio’s standards. It’s fair to assume that Disney is playing the waiting game with the next season of Percy Jackson. It would, after all, be the biggest of the series so far, dropping its heroes into the Labyrinth of classical Greek legend. Bigger sets and more action demand a costlier production and a lot more effects, and the studio might want to see how a slightly smaller season fares on Disney+.
The fate of Percy Jackson is still up in the air for now, especially after a 40% drop in viewership between Seasons 1 and 2. Fans will have to tune in for Season 3 and show Disney that its investment is worth it — but seeing as this is where Percy’s story really gets good, it shouldn’t be too hard to bring those audience numbers up.
