“Percy Jackson ”Author Rick Riordan Says Don't Expect a Multiverse Anytime Soon — But It's Not Off The Table (Exclusive)

Author Rick Riordan tells PEOPLE that season 2 of 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' is in the works and is "bigger and better" than ever

The multiverse may be permeating other fantastical worlds, such as Marvel and the D.C. comics, but don't expect it for Percy Jackson just yet.

Rick Riordan, the author of the beloved series, tells PEOPLE that while season 2 of the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians is chugging along (and is "bigger and even better than season one"), he has been intentional about separating 2010's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and 2013's Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters from the current show.

"It was a very conscious decision that we said, 'Okay, we're not going to deal with the movie stuff,'" he says. "I don't want anything to overshadow the new young cast and take away from them. This needs to be their moment, and we need to give them room to breathe and be these characters without worrying about anything that came before."

Related: Logan Lerman Predicts New Percy Jackson Series Will Be a 'Hit' in Surprise Message to Cast: 'The Show Looks Amazing'

The show features newcomers Walker Scobell as Percy, Leah Jeffries as Annabeth and Aryan Simhadri as Grover, all in their breakout roles.

While other fantasy worlds have introduced past actors who have played the same character back into the canon through multiverses, Riordan says he's unsure whether we'll be seeing Logan Lerman, who originally played Percy 14 years ago, or any of the original cast back on the silver screen,

"I mean, Marvel didn't get into the multiverse — how many movies were they into it before they introduced that concept?" Riordan says. "So I think if that were to happen, that's way down the line."

Related: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Cast: All About the Stars of the New Disney+ Series

Riordan was famously strongly opposed to the original films — calling them his "life's work going through a meat grinder" — as the creators allegedly didn't consult with him on the script. Now, he says, he has much more creative control and has been writing on the scripts himself.

"I am at a point in my career when I can have the time and where I have the power, frankly, to be part of the process and make sure my voice is heard," he says. "I now understand how things can go so horribly wrong with adaptations."

Riordan teases that he's seen the scripts for season 2 — and he's "really happy with them," meaning fans have much to look forward to in the coming season after season 1 finished airing in early 2024.

The author says this season will "cut away and fill in some of the history of the characters and the backstory" through a series of flashbacks to help readers understand the backstory of all the characters more deeply. He also teases that a fan-favorite character, Thalia Grace, will be introduced.

"The beauty of doing Sea of Monsters on the TV screen is that all those little stories that Annabeth tells us about her background with Luke and Thalia in the book aren't just stories," he says. "You can see them happening in her flashbacks."

Nearly two decades after the release of the first book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, and two movies, one TV show and seven books later (with an eighth one to come), Riordan marvels at the longevity of the series.

His latest novel, Wrath of the Triple Goddess, hit bookshelves on Sept. 24, the second in his latest Percy trilogy, The Senior Year Adventures.

"The fact that this little story that I told [my son] is still with us and kids are still picking it up for the first time today, and there are readers now who read it and are old enough now that they're starting to have kids of their own — I mean, the whole thing is just mind-boggling," Riordan adds.

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Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1 is now streaming on Disney+.

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