Beginning Dec. 10, 2025, episodes of season two of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians have been airing every Wednesday at 3 a.m. EST on Disney+, the first two releasing together. The show follows a demigod (son of a mortal and a god) named Percy Jackson (Walker Scorbell), a son of the Greek god Poseidon (Tony Stephens). It’s adapted after books by Rick Riordan with the shared name, and there are other adaptations of the first book: The Lightning Thief; a musical and a movie (as well as a Sea of Monsters movie).
For fans of the books before watching the movies, the movies simply weren’t up to par with the source material. Many are feeling the same about the show, going up in arms about differences- even those made for ease of viewing and filming. Writing a novel is entirely different from directing a show. Instead of being able to describe otherworldly activities, directors of this godly production must show you.
With season one establishing the world and our main villain– Kronos (Nick Boraine) already having been introduced, season two is allowed to dig deeper and really elaborate on characters and their backstories. One large change is where Percy’s half brother, Tyson, (a cyclops played by Daniel Diemer) already lives with Percy and his mother, Sally, (Virginia Kull)– instead of being a classmate in gym that helps Percy fight Laetrygonian giants that throw burning dodgeballs at them.These giants don’t appear until Percy, Annabeth Chase (Leah Jeffries), and Tyson are near Camp Half-Blood, replacing the Colchis bulls. Much like in the book, the episode and season in general focuses on a side character named Clarisse La Rue (Dior Goodjohn) who gets assigned a quest after winning a chariot race. The quest is essential to restore the powers of their barrier that protects them from monster or mortal invasion (even if accidently).
What happens once the group gets to camp is the first difference in episode one: Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson watch Luke poison Thalia’s tree, the source of the barrier and, before she was turned into a tree, one of his closest friends. Originally, she was poisoned before they all reached camp and they had to find out who poisoned her and how. However, this switch ended up contributing well to the plot as Luke disappeared before the people on border patrol could find them– leading the patrol to believe that one of them poisoned the tree; including the new camp counselor Tantalus. His presence is another issue though, as Tantalus was there because Zeus (Courtney B. Vance in season two) believed Chiron (Glynn Turman) poisoned Thalia as Chiron is a son of Kronos.
Starting from the very beginning in episode one, “I Play Dodgeball with Cannibals,” though, we see Grover in the woods searching for Pan, the Greek god of the wild, where a group of rebel demigods greet him and a side character exclusive to the show is introduced: Alison Simms (Beatrice Kitsos), a daughter of Apollo. As an escape attempt, Grover plays his reed pipes and gets rescued by nature as a tentacle catches him and brings him to Polyphemus’ (Aleks Paunovic) island. In the book, however, Percy’s empathic link with Grover allows him to find Grover in a wedding dress boutique in Florida hiding from Polyphemus. Later on, though, the show expands on this empathic link with Percy and Grover communicating through it.
In episode two, “Demon Pigeons Attack,” there are still the Stymphalian Birds that descend on the chariot races, but Annabeth and Percy have more tension after she Iris-messages (in universe communication method in which one provides an offering to Iris, goddess of rainbows, so she will grand live video footage of who you wish to see) Chiron who brings up The Great Prophecy. Both in the show and book, though, Annabeth is reluctant to be around Tyson and it isn’t yet explained why. To scare them off with high-pitched noises, Percy and Annabeth use “Emotions” by Mariah Carey instead of Dean Martin’s Greatest Hits. A change that’s heavily disliked is the disappearance of the hippocampi, something that even the movie had. Instead of a mythical creature with the upper body of a horse and the lower body of a fish, it’s an inflated boat instead– which gets shot by a crossbow by Tantalus instead of the patrol harpies that follow them in the book. Lastly, Hermes isn’t on a jog now when he happens upon Percy on the shores of Camp Half-Blood, and a comedic detail is missing: his live snakes on his caduceus, named George and Martha. A fan-favorite detail was missing during the scene as Hermes helps Percy create a plan for his own quest, making many fans upset at the disappearance.
Once again we see Allison Sims, who gets exposed by Percy and Annabeth in this episode, “We Board the Princess Andromeda.” On the positive side of differences, we get to see Clarise’s perspective a bit on the book but it’s more prevalent in the show, and instead of a ship of dead confederates it’s a mismatched ship of souls who lost in battle. A moment I missed in the show was an Iris-message conversation between Classire and Ares- one that built up her character and made me start to feel different about her from a young age at my first readthrough. In the conversation, Ares tells Clarisse he would much rather have a son on this quest to make him proud and Clarisse is internally devastated but wants to prove herself, and the moment makes readers see a more serious part of the series as well as feel for Clarisse as they see a different side of her.
“Clarisse Blows Everything Up,” episode four has a wild change in a bracelet belonging to Annabeth from Kelloggia that is given to her by Luke. A flashback is shown of the moment it’s given to her: when she’s on the run with Luke and Thalia (Tamara Smart). Luke tells Annabeth that it’s from the goddess of stealth and says wearing it will make it almost impossible for monsters to find her, but now that she has a cap of invisibility from her mother, Athena, it can render her an even higher threat- at least according to Luke. Annabeth compares her new bracelet to Aegis in the moment, a bracelet Thalia owns that transforms into a shield with Medusa’s face. Nowadays, she tries to get rid of it, perhaps because of what’s come to Luke, but the sea keeps returning it. Another monumental change is about coordinates to find the fleece. Tantalus gives Classire the wrong ones in the show, which Percy corrects at the quest announcement only to be ignored. Once being told by her navigator that the coordinates are incorrect, she remembers the moment, a sharp change from not being told the coordinates at all but being given them by Percy after Clarisse saves him, Tyson, and Annabeth from a Hydra.
Perhaps the most egregious changes were in episode five, “We Check Into C.C. Spa and Resort,” where two trials Percy and Annabeth face are blended. In the book, C.C.’s health program is more becoming a better version of the self, not a program set up to help get past the sirens that are oddly close to her resort. She helped six champions get past the sirens, but the real thanks should be given to the beeswax that plugged their ears and helped them avoid the song. A deeply loved moment is when Percy gets turned into a guinea pig, and even though I’m glad that it got to the screen at all, it’s more stereotypical magic as she blows sparky powder on his face and he turns, instead of a smoothie that she convinces him to drink. Additionally, men were present on the island. Although some may see this as more miniscule change, Circe’s whole endeavor in her base myths was a woman who turned men into pigs, but now Percy isn’t as suspicious as multiple men are seen at the resort, and she doesn’t really have a reason to turn him.
Another difference is the confrontation with the sirens: instead of taking Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, they take a sailboat. Percy steals beeswax from Circe’s office but, as cliche would require, there’s only enough for one. Percy offers to be tied to the mast without wax while Annabeth uses the wax, but the jar is summoned back. In the book, it’s quite the opposite as Annabeth offers to be tied to the mast as she thinks the experience will make her wiser, especially as Odyessus did the same. She ends up cutting herself loose and swimming to the island because Percy forgets to take her knife, who notices and saves her from drowning. The alluring vision she sees is a little different, and it’s a little meta because Annabeth knows that the sirens are luring her in as Percy, Grover, and Luke as she stabs them and her mother, Athena (Andra Day) closes in to kill a siren, but ends up to just be a siren posing as Athena. In the book, it’s a bit odd as Percy is only able to see her vision through contact as he tries to rescue her, and to guarantee her survival he wills the water to stop her from hearing it. In the vision, there’s Luke and Annabeth’s parents waiting for her on a picnic blanket in a gorgeously designed New York City. Overall the show doesn’t mention Annabeth’s love for architecture (yet), but it’s a strong background plotline in the books. On the same boat we also find out why Annabeth has an aversion to Cyclopes: it was the reason for Thalia’s untimely demise as it stalls them in Flatbush, Brooklyn and allowed the monsters chasing them to catch up.
Chock full of action we have episode six, “Nobody gets the Fleece” where Percy has another dream about Kronos, but this time we see Thalia under the hood of the cloaked figure- a scene not at all mentioned in the books, but one that readers know allude to the Sea of Monsters ending. The fight for the fleece also differs from source material, in the show Polyphemus’ fake fleece trap is completely circumvented, but he still manages to hurt Annabeth. To add to the drama, Luke shows up on the island via a portal to get the fleece; and the sequence of events of Percy, Luke, and Classire trading the fleece between them to heal Annabeth is somewhat complicated. Once again, the hippocampi aren’t present and everyone goes to Clarisse’s ship instead of getting picked up in a much cooler mode of transport.
Next up is our very own penultimate episode seven, “I Go Down with the Ship,” where Chiron’s brethren the Party Ponies are gone. In the book, his absence leads to a Miami vacation with them and we get a whole chapter with them, but they aren’t present in the show; hopefully we will see them in later seasons!
Last but certainly not least we have episode eight, “The Fleece Works Its Magic Too Well” which changed how quickly we learn why Zeus turned Thalia into a pinetree. She was the whole reason for the quest because her tree marked the barrier of Camp Half-Blood, but as the title says, the healing magic of the fleece worked too well: Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, is revived.
Yes, overall the season prospered as the new season brought back old watchers, old readers, and partly a fresh new audience entirely. It’s hard to adapt every single moment from a young adult fantasy novel series directly on to screen, and it’s best not to judge too harshly even if your favorite moments or characters don’t show up when they’re supposed to, or at all! There’s still three more seasons possible just for Percy Jackson and the Olympians and season three is already confirmed and in production! I’m looking forward to season three, The Titan’s Curse, especially as it will be the only adaptation of its kind. And even so, Craig Silverstein from the production team notes that the changes of season two will heighten the key turns rather than erase them, so don’t worry about what could happen to your favorite demigods.
