Rick Riordan’s New ‘Camp Half-Blood’ Series Is the Gap-Filler ‘Percy Jackson’ Fans Have Been Waiting For
The world of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians‘ has become one of Disney+’s most celebrated franchises in recent memory. Since ‘The Lightning Thief’ was first published, Riordan’s novels have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide and have been translated into dozens of languages. The Emmy-winning Disney+ adaptation has only deepened that reach, earning a 95% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, a sharp contrast to the earlier theatrical films, which never surpassed 50%.
With the show’s third season on the horizon, fan enthusiasm for this universe shows no signs of slowing. Season 3 will adapt ‘The Titan’s Curse’, widely regarded as a turning point in the series due to its darker tone and higher emotional stakes. A post-credits scene attached to the season 2 finale confirmed a 2026 release window, with filming having wrapped around early March of this year. But while that wait stretches on, Riordan is giving readers a reason to return to the demigod world right now.
Random House Children’s Books has announced the ‘Camp Half-Blood’ series, a new four-book middle-grade run set within the same world as the original Percy Jackson novels. The first novel, ‘Camp Half-Blood: The Wild Zone’, co-written with Annabelle Oh, is set for release on September 29, with the remaining three books to follow in six-month intervals, featuring co-authors Kyle Lukoff, Jade Adia, and Pablo Cartaya respectively. These stories unfold between the events of ‘The Lightning Thief’ and ‘The Sea of Monsters’, centering on four new demigods who arrive at Camp Half-Blood amid shocking secrets that surface as campers begin to disappear.
Riordan has been open about what sparked the idea. In a statement, he told Publishers Weekly that working on the Disney+ adaptation gave him a new perspective on the camp and made him wonder what was unfolding there between the original books, when Percy, Annabeth, and Grover were not around, and that bringing in co-authors who could write authentically about the new heroes’ backgrounds had been an incredible thrill. The first book specifically follows Katie Kim, a Korean-American daughter of Ares who harbors a dangerous secret and stumbles upon a forbidden area of the camp’s forest known as the Wild Zone.
Disney has already moved on the property’s screen potential. The studio has optioned the TV rights to the ‘Camp Half-Blood’ series for a potential Disney+ adaptation, though Riordan has been candid that an option does not guarantee a production, noting that many books that get optioned are never made into shows or films. Given the track record of the main series, however, even the possibility is enough to set fans buzzing about what a spinoff show could look like.
Riordan’s involvement as executive producer of the Disney+ series has been central to its success, a deliberate corrective after his deeply unhappy experience with the earlier film adaptations. That same careful creative stewardship is now being extended into this new literary chapter, with each book shaped by authors specifically chosen to give authentic voice to their characters’ backgrounds.
Whether you are planning to pick up ‘The Wild Zone’ the moment it hits shelves or hoping it fast-tracks to a Disney+ green light, share your thoughts on whether these new Camp Half-Blood demigods have what it takes to build a franchise of their own.
