Disney+Telling good stories about tweens and teens is not nearly as easy as the Disney Channel originals of the ‘90s and 2000s made it look. Beloved as the House of Mouse might have been in our youth, their track record has been dismally shaky of late. That’s what makes something as successful as Percy Jackson and the Olympians, an adaptation of Rick Riordan’s five-book phenomenon, feel so special. Percy Jackson seemed unadaptable before the advent of the series, but with a combination of good casting, good writing, and decent visual effects, it’s rightly earned its place as “Disney’s next big thing.”Good as it is to see Disney reclaiming its status as the provider of children’s media, the nature of streaming creates an insular bubble around shows that should feel like phenomena. Percy Jackson is pretty popular despite only streaming on Disney+, but it could be more so. Enter Netflix, the streamer that’s everybody’s competition and also, occasionally, their savior. Disney just struck a lucrative licensing deal with its big rival, leasing its punchiest titles to Netflix for limited promotional windows. Among shows like Felicity, This Is Us, and a handful of recent Disney-Pixar releases, Percy Jackson and the Olympians will also cross over — but only for a limited time. Time is ticking down until Percy Jackson returns with its third season this November, and Disney is banking on that build-up to draw new eyes to the series. It’s leasing the first two seasons of Percy Jackson to Netflix for three months, starting on October 4 — so any novices not yet familiar with the series can catch up before its new season debuts on Disney+.It’s a clever strategy, one that we’ve seen pay off for Amazon Prime’s Fallout, which streamed free on YouTube for a limited time, and AMC’s Interview with the Vampire, a show nearly doomed to “underrated legend” status because... does anybody have an AMC+ subscription? Disney+ is a far more common streaming platform to subscribe to, but it still can’t quite compete with the numbers Netflix rakes in month after month. Leasing a beloved show to the streamer for a few short months is a win-win for either party: Disney gets a kickback of whatever revenue Netflix makes from big audience numbers, and those who’ve never had the chance to see the new Percy Jackson can get a taste of the show before the story continues.Percy Jackson Season 3 is coming soon, but you can catch the first two seasons on Netflix for a limited time. | Disney+Percy Jackson and the Olympians, to put it glibly, is essentially American Harry Potter. It follows the misadventures of its title hero (played in the show by Walker Scobell) as he discovers his identity as a “half-blood,” the child of one human parent and another who belongs to the Greek pantheon. Yep, Greek gods are real in Percy’s world, as are the monsters, magic, and demons that populate those legends. There are also complicated rules and nebulous prophecies that govern how Greek gods interact with mortals — and Percy’s dad, the mighty Poseidon (Toby Stephens), broke a big one by falling in love with Percy’s mom (Virginia Kull). Poseidon is a member of the “Big Three” alongside his brothers, Zeus (played by the late Lance Reddick in Season 1 and Courtney B. Vance in the seasons that follow) and Hades (Jay Duplass). Neither is supposed to have children, thanks to a prophecy that foretells a scion who will either save or destroy Olympus when they turn 16. Percy seems doomed from the very start — but as he trains in the ways of Olympus at a yearly summer camp, Camp Half-Blood, and embarks on quests with new friends, he learns that he’s not the only forbidden child this prophecy may be alluding to. In an era where supernatural YA is scarce, Percy Jackson is a breath of fresh air. | Disney+The first five books in Riordan’s series chart the years leading up to Percy’s Sweet 16, and are chock full of encounters with figures like Medusa and Hercules, as well as remixes of classic Greek stories. (If Millennials and Gen Z know anything about The Odyssey, it’s probably thanks to the second book in the series, The Sea of Monsters.) Riordan’s books are divided into chapters that perfectly facilitate an adventure-of-the-week format on-screen, but with just 16 episodes between seasons, Percy Jackson is easily bingable, too. It should be a breeze to catch up before the new season premieres on November 20; with the series streaming on Netflix until the end of the year, though, new viewers also don’t have to rush.Percy Jackson and the Olympians is streaming on Disney+ and Netflix.