6

20th Century Fox (err, soon to be Disney) owns the movie rights to the Percy Jackson book series, by Rick Riordan.

But there are several other series' set in the world of Percy Jackson - such as The Heroes of Olympus, The Trials of Apollo, The Kane Chronicles, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.

Does 20th Century Fox own the movie rights to these series' as well, because they own the rights to the original Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, or would they have to acquire them separately?

3
  • I should imagine that they optioned them all at the same time
    – Valorum
    Dec 17, 2017 at 11:50
  • 3
    They didn't all exist when the rights were sold.
    – Mithical
    Dec 17, 2017 at 11:52
  • "Fox, which bought the movie rights to the Percy characters in 2004, has not yet announced plans for a sequel to The Lightning Thief ... "Fox has what we in the publishing world would call ‘first dibs' on The Sea of Monsters," said Riordan's agent, Nancy Gallt. "They have not, as far as we know, contacted us to exercise those first dibs." The Gotham Group, which is handling film rights to the Kane Chronicles, can't say who might be interested in the new series, said Eddie Gamarra, literary manager/producer for the company."; tinyurl.com/y8xbgp29
    – Valorum
    Dec 17, 2017 at 12:01

1 Answer 1

2

To quote Rick Riordan's website (located under Movies -> "There was a Percy Jackson live musical! What about a Percy Jackson TV show?"):

The rights for television/film to anything involving Percy’s world, including sequels like Heroes of Olympus and Trials of Apollo, are owned solely and forever by Fox. As far as I am aware, which is not very far, they have no plans to do anything further with those rights.

So - yeah, Fox owns the rights to Percy Jackson sequels. Now, this could be out of date, as the site also mentions only The Lightning Thief film being in existence (there's also The Sea of Monsters, curse them both). And as we'll see in a moment, it is kinda out of date.

The other ambiguity here is whether the Kane chronicles and Magnus Chase books count as sequels to the Percy Jackson books. I'd argue they are included as they are in the same world (the "other gods" reference in Kane Chronicles #1, the cross-over stories like Son of Sobek, and Annabeth Chase being the cousin of Magnus Chase), but I can't be sure there.

Now. There's another complexity. (Eesh.) The rights are being transferred over to Disney because Disney is taking over the world buying a bunch of Fox, so (again quoting Riordan's blog):

Now it appears that many assets from the Fox movie studio will be bought by Disney, assuming regulators let the deal go through. I imagine that includes Percy, which means Percy Jackson, in a way, is “coming home” to Disney.

Wikipedia seems to agree that the deal includes Percy.

So...since Disney/Fox haven't technically fully carried through yet, it's all Fox right now. By mid 2019, though, it should be all Disney.

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.