Netflix Cancels Plans for Major Fantasy Show

Netflix has dropped Rick Riordan's 'The Kane Chronicles' after over three years in development.

By Michael Hein

Netflix's adaptation of The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan is on hold, according to the author himself. Riordan fans have been celebrating this year thanks to the new adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney+. Sadly, Riordan recently announced that his Netflix project is on hold in a post on GoodReads.

"Right now, Kane Chronicles is in 'turnaround,' which means Netflix has decided not to move forward and their option has lapsed after trying for two years to develop a script they liked," he wrote. "Now it depends on whether another studio would like to step in, assume the preproduction costs, and move forward. This is not at all unusual. It happens, I would guess, with the majority of film projects. Also, the streaming industry as a whole is shrinking their development slate right now, meaning they are canceling more content and making less content. Kane got caught in that trend, despite the strong success of Percy TV."

The Kane Chronicles is set in the same fictional universe as most of Riordan's other novels, including the Percy Jackson series, which is more broadly known as The Camp Half-Blood Chronicles. There are three novels in The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid (2010), The Throne of Fire (2011) and The Serpent's Shadow (2012). They have a similar concept to the Percy Jackson series, but they draw on Egyptian mythology rather than Greek mythology.

The books follow siblings Carter and Sadie Kane, whose father, an Egyptologist, goes missing under mysterious circumstances. While he is gone, they stay with their uncle who teaches them about their family's secret magical abilities – and their link to the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Before long, they find themselves confronting deities like Horus, Isis and Set as they take shape in the modern world.

Riordan's fantasy-adventure novels about ancient mythology are extremely popular, and Percy Jackson is best known to the public because it has already been adapted to the screen twice. Each time, fans were hoping that more of Riordan's work would be adapted as well to create a broader franchise and explore how those stories might connect to one another. He has written several series about Greek mythology and another about Norse mythology as well. In each case, he draws on his experience as a social studies teacher to present historical material in a way that will be engaging for younger audiences.

The Kane Chronicles may not be in development at Netflix right now, but with the option still available for other streamers, hope is far from lost. Percy Jackson and the Olympians is streaming now on Disney+. All of Riordan's novels are available in print, digital and audiobook formats.

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