Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has commented on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, saying in a new interview that he hopes the show does J.R.R. Tolkien’s work justice. It’s not all about making money, he said.
“Middle-earth is such a beloved world, and telling the story of the forging of The Rings of Power is a privilege and a responsibility. I hope we do Tolkien’s work justice,” he told Time. “It goes beyond making a commercially successful show. Everyone working on the show read these stories as kids and our hearts are in it.”
The Rings of Power is a very expensive TV series, considered by some estimates to be the costliest TV show ever made. Amazon reportedly paid $250 million for the rights alone, before $468 million in production costs for the first season, Time reported. In addition to these fees, Amazon aired a Rings of Power ad during this year’s Super Bowl at a cost of about $13 million, the report said.