Elon Musk trashes Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, says ‘Tolkien is turning in his grave’
- The billionaire took issue with the show – which attracted 25 million viewers to its first episode – specifically its male characters, calling them ‘cowards’
- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was personally involved in bringing the series to the corporation, and will use it to determine if Amazon Studios is a worthwhile venture
Elon Musk isn’t a fan of Amazon Studios’ new The Lord of the Rings show, according to his latest tweets. “Tolkien is turning in his grave,” the billionaire said on Monday.
In another tweet, Musk wrote that he disliked the show’s male characters in particular.
“Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both”, he tweeted. “Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice”.
Galadriel is a major female character in the show – one of the greatest elves in Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth realm – played by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s films, and in this series by Morfydd Clark.
Amazon has invested US$1 million in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series inspired by the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, and former company executives said the corporation will use the show to determine if Amazon Studios is a worthwhile venture for future investment.
Early indicators bode well for the series and Amazon Studios: the show premiered on Friday and 25 million viewers tuned in tuned in to the first two episodes. Critics gave the show largely positive reviews as well, setting up Amazon for success.
The Rings of Power takes place 3,000 years before Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films. The story was drawn from Tolkien’s appendices to Lord of the Rings, his mytho-histories in The Silmarillion, and clues scattered throughout his best-known works that refer to earlier times.
Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos was personally involved in bringing the show to the corporation, according to Variety.
