Amazon and The Rings of Power
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
We are a few days away from Amazon's reveal of the first episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and this is a day that many J.R.R. Tolkien fans have been waiting years for (since at least 2017, when the project was first started). We are almost at the release of the premiere, and, while time moves quickly, you can also feel the weight of this series and all of the work put into it. I'm going to be brief today with my thoughts on the matter, because this piece is something that has been on my mind the last little while in regards to The Rings of Power: is Amazon trying to compete too heavily? On one hand, I am astonished by this deal that propelled The Rings of Power into production, because it exceeds a billion dollars in worth. On the other hand, that is such a massive risk. Who is to say that you will get your returns in the form of viewership and subscriptions? If any streaming service can afford such a hit, it's Amazon, but the thought of a hit of this magnitude is daunting, no matter who is running the show. Amazon purchased the show with a five season build right off the bat. Most shows ever haven't had this kind of instant-molding. They go on a season-by-season basis. It's as if Amazon is banking on the Tolkien legacy alone.
Either that, or they're finding a fighting incentive in competing with HBO. Yes, HBO: the one platform that told us that television could feel limitless yesteryear. They set the tone in general, but particularly with the productions of series like Rome and Game of Thrones. The latter is important (nay, vital) to this discussion, because House of the Dragon just dropped its first episode last week Sunday (and its second episode yesterday). To the shock of no one, the series amassed the greatest viewership of a premiere episode on HBO with twenty million pairs of eyes glued to their screens that first hour: a new record that likely won't be broken for the company any time soon. Just think about it: both House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power are fantasy epics based on the stories of two of the genre's finest writers (obviously Tolkien is the strongest, but George R.R. Martin deserves his flowers as well). It cannot be a coincidence that The Rings of Power is finally premiering during the midst of House of the Dragon's first season. I'm not sure who is stepping on whose territory, but I cannot help but think that Amazon is trying to scale up against HBO.
With this particular series, it feels like Amazon is placing all of their eggs in one basket, as to show rising services (maybe Apple TV+ in particular) who is boss, whilst flexing against the services of old (especially Netflix). Don't get me wrong. Amazon is home to a ton of great original series. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is quite a strong period piece show that intends on wrapping up soon in its next season. Undone is one of my favourite series on television at this point, and I think it's such a gutsy idea that many networks years ago would have never agreed to. The Underground Railroad is one of the greatest miniseries I've ever seen. It's not as if Amazon hasn't graced any other promising projects whilst only caring about The Rings of Power. I just feel like there are a lot of gambles taken for this particular show: the biggest payday with the utmost certainty of success, the squaring up against other competitors, and a massive production on a cherished legacy that can easily invite the biggest vitriol from super fanatics.
I've had all of these thoughts and now I've written them down. I kind of anticipated to ask what it I'd all for, but I've had an antithesis of a reaction once I got all of my ideas down. It's actually kind of interesting to be expecting a series of this magnitude. I mean, how often is this even going to happen? Let's say The Rings of Power is a bust. Amazon won't be too affected by it, given the never ending influx of financial gains the company experiences on a daily basis. It will absolutely be tuned into by at least enough people to make that first day a big enough splash; who knows about what the numbers will look like later, but I'm betting that they won't be abysmal. Work is pretty much guaranteed for the vast and crew for all five seasons, so there won't be a worry on that front. Amazon can't really lose. Even if it's a bust, the threshold of what television can be in scope and scale will still be set.
Now, I must ask: what if The Rings of Power is a success? All of what I said before will still be true, but now include the impact that a service's passion project can possess. I can't imagine that this will be the norm, and that all networks and services will be trying to fulfill billion dollar budgets (at least not frequently). I can picture the occasional push for such an epic. In the way that Rome opened the door for Game of Thrones, there's a new potential that The Rings of Power can reach. I don't think House of the Dragon will, not because I think it is a bad show or anything. It just feels similar in scale and scope of Game of Thrones, which is perfectly fine. The Rings of Power just feels like it's going to be even bigger, and set a new bar of how large a show can be. Whether it is actually good or not is the more important question, but we are going to be seeing what the latest capabilities in television production are going to look like. That should be enough incentive to tune in. Amazon placing all bets and going toe-to-toe is something else. Will it hurt Amazon if The Rings of Power isn't all that it could have been while they talk their talk? Not really, but it won’t be the best look. Once again, that doesn’t matter to Amazon: they’re one of the very few streaming services (outside of, say, Disney+) that can take such a gamble and feel very few repercussions. But I would love to see the ripple effects of what can transpire should The Rings of Power be great.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.