Disney+'s Fantasy Series Gets the Action-Packed Upgrade We've Been Waiting For

Like the trials of Hercules, it originally felt like it would take eons upon eons for fans of Rick Riordan‘s beloved Percy Jackson and the Olympians series to get a proper adaptation. Sure, there were the Logan Lerman-led movies, but they were almost universally rejected by fans for their loose approach to the source material and a lack of the books’ personality and charm. If done right, an adaptation of the Percy Jackson books absolutely had the potential to be just as popular as Harry Potter, and fans have finally earned a taste of what a successful take on the source material looks like with Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians.With Riordan having a great deal of creative input, Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1 finally delivered the faithful adaptation fans had been waiting for with an almost one-to-one iteration of the author’s first book, The Lightning Thief. Including a much healthier dose of orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirts, Season 1 was a gift that boasted all the exhilarating mythological hijinks any diehard could want, but that same dedication to the source material also resulted in some pretty stiff dialogue. Still, it was a big enough hit to warrant a Season 2, and while many of last season’s problems remain (at least in the first four episodes provided for review), it’s an exhilarating sophomore adventure that, overall, feels like a great improvement.

What Is ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Season 2 About?

Adapting the second book of the series, The Sea of Monsters, Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 picks up roughly one year after the events of Season 1, in which Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), the half-human, half-god son of Poseidon (Toby Stephens), returned Zeus’ (Lance Reddick) Lightning Bolt with the help of fellow demigod Annabeth (Leah Sava’ Jeffries) and satyr protector Grover (Aryan Simhadri). Not only has Grover gone missing during his quest abroad to find the lost god Pan, but Percy and Annabeth return to Camp Half-Blood to discover that the magical tree that protects the camp from outside threats is dying, thus putting all of the Greek Gods’ children at risk. Alongside their new cyclops companion, Tyson (Daniel Diemer), Percy and Annabeth are charged with venturing to the island of Polyphemus to retrieve the all-powerful Golden Fleece before their friend-turned-enemy Luke (Charlie Bushnell) finds it and uses it for his own dastardly plans.

Once again, Rick Riordan and co-creator Jonathan E. Steinberg have crafted an effectively accurate adaptation, bringing this modernized take on Greek mythology to life like never before. The world of Percy Jackson has always been charming for combining contemporary features with fantastical ones, and that pairing feels even more organic in Season 2. Elements like a cruise ship full of supernatural beings from across time never come across as over-the-top or out of place, while obvious pop culture references are still natural and endearing amidst all the high-stakes mythology. Perhaps the biggest improvement from Season 1 is the larger-scale action on display, which includes a riveting chariot race as well as an impressive ship battle in the eye of a massive storm.

Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson holding a sword in Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series.

‘Percy Jackson’ Season 3 Gets a Glorious Update Before Season 2 Arrives

Welcome back, campers.

The more modernized moments offer some excellent opportunities for levity, but it’s a shame that the same can’t be said for one glaring aspect of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2. The biggest mistake that the show repeats from Season 1 is a massive overreliance on exposition. There’s a constant need to explain every single detail, document the precise path characters need to take to retrieve an item, or provide long-winded backstory explanations. It’s understandable to a point, given the many moving parts of Riordan’s expansive world, but the result is a lot of wooden, unengaging dialogue between characters. This issue is most apparent in an admittedly uneven premiere, which also has some pacing issues in trying to cram a year’s worth of information into less than an hour’s runtime.

Annabeth Gets Her Time To Shine in ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Season 2

The show’s dialogue and exposition issues mostly only persist in the Season 2 premiere; more importantly, Percy Jackson and the Olympians returns with some much-needed growth and improvement for its characters, which goes double for Jeffries’ Annabeth. Where Season 1 almost exclusively focused on Percy and his perspective, Annabeth is less of a supporting character and more like a co-lead this time around. This is as much her story as it is his in Season 2, and her arc and personal stakes evolve her into one of the most interesting characters in the entire series. Percy is also really coming into his own as a proper protagonist, with Scobell bringing some much-appreciated charisma to the role. He’s amplified by another great new addition to the series in Diemer’s Tyson. It would have been more than easy to simply make him the bumbling comic relief, but the cyclops is never treated as the butt of a joke. Instead, Tyson’s a meaningful and well-written character, especially in the many ways he helps Percy himself to become a better person.

Because the main trio primarily consists of Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson, Grover takes more of a backseat in Season 2, but he’s a bigger part of the show’s initial episodes than one might think. The extra time also allows for a bit more development into Percy’s long-time rival, Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn), who faces a compelling moral dilemma once she becomes the captain of a rowdy crew of undead sailors. Other notable cast standouts in Season 2 include the lovably irritating Dionysus (Jason Mantzoukas) and the easily detestable newcomer Tantalus (Timothy Simons).

Four episodes in, Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 is a satisfying improvement over an already rock-solid Season 1. The characters are more engaging, the action set pieces happen on a much grander scale, and the stakes feel higher than ever before. Things do get off to a fairly rough start with an uneven premiere that boasts many of Season 1’s dialogue and pacing issues, but they become less noticeable, and subsequent installments only get better and better. If Season 2 continues that same momentum with its remaining episodes, then there’s no reason why Percy Jackson’s saga shouldn’t continue for as many seasons as it takes to adapt the rest of Riordan’s books.

The first two episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians premiere Wednesday, December 10 on Disney+.