Bezos is putting some pressure on McKay and Payne, whose credits thus far in their career are relatively small. The pair worked on Star Trek Beyond as writers for the 2016 film and currently have a Flash Gordon project in development. However, the Rings of Power is their biggest assignment, as it would be for most filmmakers. The $465 million project has a lot riding on its first season, which consists of ten episodes.
“Every showrunners’ dream is to get notes on early scripts and cuts from the Executive Chairman, they just love that. I want to thank you both for listening whenever it helped but mostly I need to thank you for ignoring me at exactly the right times… One of the best decisions we made was to bet on this relatively unknown team because we saw something special.”
The War for Fantasy Viewership
The Rings of Power is the most expensive series ever produced; however, that doesn’t mean the series won’t have competition. House of the Dragon, the prequel to HBO’s highly successful Game of Thrones series, premiered a few weeks ago on Aug. 2. The series drew 10 million viewers for its premiere and a total of 20 million after a week. The second episode did even better, gaining a 2% higher audience accounting for 10.2 million viewers on the Sunday night the episode debuted.
