With the recent Percy Jackson and the Olympians trailer and official December release date, fans of Rick Riordan’s works are more than ready to visit Camp Half-Blood through their TV screens. While past productions of Riordan’s most popular book series still leave bitter tastes in our mouths, fans are very optimistic about the show’s outcome. There is one other production that has been in development for the past three years. It’s been a while since there has been an update, but another one of Riordan’s book series was planned to be adapted into a series of movies.
Riordan and his wife Becky sold the TV/film rights to Netflix to develop the series, but the two of them are working closely on it as producers. The plan was to adapt the first book, The Red Pyramid, into a live-action film and go from there. But, there have been many delays since the project was first announced in 2020. This is mostly to do with the script for the film.
The script has gone through many drafts, and we still do not know if the final script has been written/finalized. Due to these issues and delays, we are likely to not have The Kane Chronicles film for a good while. So, is Netflix still adapting The Red Pyramid? The short answer (to our knowledge) is yes. However, this could be a great opportunity to adapt the books into a TV series like that of PJO instead of a film series.
What Happened to the Movie?
As far as we know, The Kane Chronicles movie is still green lit. But it has been a whole year since the latest update, possibly due to all the delays with the film plus Riordan working closely with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV show. Not to mention his solo Nico di Angelo book The Sun and the Star, released back in May, and his upcoming PJO novel The Chalice of the Gods. He is a very busy man with tons of projects under his belt. He can only focus on so much, so it makes sense that he is putting The Kane Chronicles on the back burner for the time being. Still, he could save so much of his time if he scrapped the project. This isn’t to say that The Kane Chronicles shouldn’t be adapted at all, but rather modify it into a television series.
We last covered the topic back in 2020 when the project was first announced. Since then, Riordan has been keeping us updated on the development of the movie on his official website. But we have yet to get any form of trailer or even production details. So far, they are working on finalizing the script. Yet this update was back in 2022, and it has been a little over a year since then. There is no question that the movie is still in development, at least until Riordan makes an update that says otherwise. Until then, we can safely assume that The Kane Chronicles movie is still happening.
A TV Series Could Adapt the Books Better
When it comes to adapting books into films, one of the major downfalls is that some parts of the book get cut out during the filming production. Not every single little detail or conversation absolutely has to be adapted as the film is being produced. That would just make a movie drag on.
However, major motion pictures that have adapted books into films (like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games) tend to leave out parts that are very important to the overall story or character arc. This is especially the case when transferring the books into script format. That is likely why the script for The Red Pyramid has gone through various drafts since the initial announcement of the project. Still, there have not been any other announcements since Riordan posted back in August 2022 that Diandra Pendleton-Thompson is working on the current script.
If the script has been the main issue keeping production on delay, maybe this is a sign that The Kane Chronicles shouldn’t be made into a film. It might be easier to transfer books into TV-style script. Dividing the episodes by chapters and having the first book be the first season. Similar to that of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. That way, almost everything from the books can be transferred smoothly into cinema.
Other books from his interconnected series could be adapted this way as well. Maybe, just like PJO, the Kane trilogy could benefit from the Disney+ treatment of developing into a new series. After all, Riordan also plans on staying with Disney+ not just for Percy but also to adapt his solo novel Daughter of the Deep into a movie as well.
A Connected Universe
It’s no secret that the story of Percy Jackson extends far beyond modernized Greek mythology. The Kane Chronicles focuses on Egyptian mythos, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard focuses on Norse mythology, and the PJO world collided with the Roman side. With the PJO series being adapted into a TV series and a second season already being written, we are bound to get other adaptations of Riordan’s books. Yes, The Red Pyramid can be adapted into a movie and still be connected to the PJO show. But because of all the delays regarding the script, it might be time for Riordan and his team to reevaluate what would work best for The Kane Chronicles to be suited for cinema.
Besides, PJO and the Kane trilogy have already canonically crossed over as a trio of short stories. We’re looking at a Marvel-styled cinematic universe that could very much happen. Honestly, now is the perfect time for this development in Percy Jackson history. What started as bedtime stories for Riordan’s son turned into a universe of adventure, equality, inclusion, and many journeys of self-discovery. Not just for the characters in the Riordanverse, but for ourselves as well. It’s no wonder that so many fans have deep connections to these characters. We see ourselves in them.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
