How Jeff Bezos Really Feels About The Rings Of Power Season 1
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" on Amazon Prime Video has been a divisive television series, to say the least. With an average audience score of 38% and a critics rating of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, it's pretty obvious that not everyone is in agreement over the Tolkien offshoot. But in reality, there's only one opinion that really matters — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The billionaire entrepreneur is basically a lifelong "Lord of the Rings" fan and has voiced his love for all things Middle-earth in past interviews. "My grandfather's the one who introduced me to Tolkien," Bezos told theatergoers at a "Rings of Power" premiere in late August, per Variety. "I fell in love immediately, I was probably 13 or 14 years old," Bezos said. "I fell in love with the adventure of course, with the detailed universe, with the feelings of hope and optimism, with the idea that everybody has a role to play." Like his grandfather before him, the Amazon founder has also apparently passed down his fandom to his son, who had a very serious warning for him before "The Rings of Power" went into production. "Dad, please don't eff this up," Bezos recalled him saying at the UK premiere (via Variety).
When it came to creating the series, Bezos ultimately served as one of Amazon's biggest guiding forces for getting the show up and running, per studio head Jennifer Salke, who discussed Bezos' passion for "The Rings of Power" in a recent interview — as well as his true and honest opinion of Season 1.
'Jeff Bezos loves this show'
According to Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke, Jeff Bezos couldn't be happier with what showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are doing with "The Rings of Power" and its first season. "Jeff Bezos loves this show and this whole endeavor as much as anybody possibly could," Salke told Variety in an October 2022 interview. "I've talked to him a lot about it," she said. "He loves the show, and I can tell he's proud of it. And he respects the integrity of what we're setting up and the intelligence and thoughtfulness behind it."
Amazon has already revealed that "The Rings of Power" will be comprised of five seasons in total, with the story covering Middle-earth's Second Age long before the events of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" stories. While many people have hated on the studio's depiction of J.R.R. Tolkien's material, Bezos and others who have bought into what Salke and the showrunners are selling all know it's a marathon, not a sprint. "We hope that more and more people come to it, because it's five seasons of storytelling," Salke said.
While fans are excited about the "Rings of Power" roadmap that's ahead, the nonstop review-bombing will surely still continue, with one of the constant complaints being that the show feels like a "cash-grab" and "woke" depiction of Tolkien lore. Showrunners Payne and McKay had some intriguing remarks about the Season 1 hate and other things being said about the Amazon series in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "Some of what's been hardest to hear is the cynical point of view that this is a cash grab," McKay told THR. "It's like, oh my God, the opposite. This is the most earnest production. This is not a paycheck job for anybody. This is a labor of love."