How a Percy Jackson set dilemma became Disney’s next four-book Camp Half-Blood story

Rick Riordan’s next Percy Jackson world expansion did not begin with a mythological prophecy. It began with a production problem on the Disney+ series. That practical question helped turn into Camp Half-Blood, a new four-book story cycle set between the events of season 1 and season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

A Disney+ production question opened the door to a new story

Riordan, the author behind Percy Jackson & the Olympians, said the new Camp Half-Blood books grew out of a conversation about the show’s physical sets. The discussion was not originally about launching a publishing line. It was about what to do with the Camp Half-Blood sets between the first and second seasons.

He described weighing options such as taking the sets apart, leaving them standing and covered, or renting the land. Those practical questions pushed him toward a creative one: whether there were stories worth telling in that space between The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters.

From there, the idea expanded beyond a single book. Riordan developed a pitch that could work as novels and as a television season. He said his hope was to share the storytelling with other creators on the publishing side, and, if the television version ever happened, to use a similar approach there too.

That detail makes Camp Half-Blood an especially interesting addition for Disney-era Percy Jackson fans. It is not simply another spinoff placed somewhere in the larger timeline. It was conceived specifically around the gap between two seasons of the show, which gives it a direct connection to the version of Percy Jackson now on Disney+.

What Camp Half-Blood is, and where it fits in Riordan’s larger universe

Camp Half-Blood is the name of the summer camp where Percy meets other demigods, and it is also the title of this new quartet of books. The first installment, The Wild Zone, is already available.

The series adds another branch to a mythology-driven world that Riordan has been building across multiple book lines. Percy Jackson & the Olympians centers on Percy learning that he is the son of Poseidon. Heroes of Olympus continues directly from that saga. Other series branch into different mythologies and corners of the same broader universe, including Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard for Norse mythology, The Kane Chronicles for Egyptian mythology, and The Trials of Apollo, which follows Apollo after he is cast out of Mount Olympus and tries to regain immortality.

Disney’s current live-action focus is Percy Jackson and the Olympians, with Walker Scobell playing Percy and Leah Sava Jeffries playing Annabeth Chase. The show’s third season is set to premiere on Disney+ on Friday, November 20.

What sets Camp Half-Blood apart is its structure. Riordan is working with three other authors on four books that all tell the same larger story from different points of view. Instead of following one central hero through the entire arc, each installment shifts to a different camper.

The first book follows Katie Kim into the Wild Zone

The Wild Zone was written by Riordan and Annabelle Oh. Its lead character is Katie Kim, a daughter of Ares who stays at Camp Half-Blood during the off-season. Katie is dealing with the pressure of measuring up to an older sister who is described as an overachiever.

The story begins when Clarisse La Rue, another child of Ares, dares several campers to run through the forbidden Wild Zone. That setup gives the first book both a camp challenge and a more personal conflict for Katie.

Oh said the sibling dynamic connected with her own experience because she also has an older sister. She pointed to the way Katie’s sister seems perfect, adding that the relationship felt personal to her for that reason.

Oh also spoke about the responsibility of joining a world that already means so much to readers. She said there was a great deal of trust involved from Riordan’s side, and a strong desire on her side to do the project well. That collaborative handoff appears to be central to what Riordan wants this line to be, with different authors bringing perspectives he felt could portray these characters’ backgrounds more authentically than he could alone.

Three more perspectives are already mapped out

The remaining three books in the quartet are already identified, along with the characters at their center.

Riordan and Kyle Lukoff are writing the second book, The Rite of Aphrodite. That installment is told from the perspective of Harper Rush, a son of Aphrodite. It is scheduled for release on March 30, 2027.

The third book, co-written with Jade Adia, focuses on Zuri Chapman, the daughter of Apollo. The fourth, co-written with Pablo Cartaya, centers on Benny Garcia, an unclaimed demigod.

Whether Camp Half-Blood will also become a television project remains uncertain. What is clear is that a question about how to handle Percy Jackson sets between seasons has already produced a new four-book expansion of the franchise. For Disney+ viewers, that means the world around Camp Half-Blood is not only continuing on screen. It is also growing in print in a way that was sparked by the show itself.