Jeff Bezos Thanks ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Showrunners For ‘Ignoring’ His Notes – CNET [CNET]

The Amazon founder’s son also said, “Dad, please don’t eff this up.”

If you weren’t already excited for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, even more exciting news came out of the show’s UK premiere on Tuesday night. Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, aka a man who has no experience as a showrunner, said the actual showrunners of the prequel series wisely ignored his notes.

“Every showrunner’s dream — and I mean every showrunner — their dream is to get notes on scripts and early cuts from the founder and executive chairman,” Bezos said (via Variety). “They loved that. I need to thank you both for listening whenever it helped, but mostly I need to thank you for ignoring me at exactly the right times.”

Bezos’ son also had notes — for his father.

“My kids have become Tolkien fans as well,” Bezos said. “And after Amazon got involved in this project, my son came up to me one day, he looked me in the eyes, very sincerely, and he said: ‘Dad, please don’t eff this up.'”

Those at the UK premiere, held at the Odeon Luxe cinema in Leicester Square, London, watched the first two episodes.

Premiere: The Rings of Power is my favourite Tolkien on screen thus far, and I love the Bakshi and Fellowship. Super excited for the rest of the series. Brilliant acting, world, music, directing, perfect Tolkien vibe. <3 #TheRingsOfPower #TheRingsOfPowerLondon

— Marek Steven (@Marek_Steven) August 30, 2022

“The Rings of Power unites all the major stories of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men,” showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay said in January. “Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring — but before there was one, there were many… and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.”

The series features a huge cast, including Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Robert Aramayo as Elrond and Maxim Baldry as Isildur.

Two episodes will premiere on Thursday on Prime Video at 6 p.m. PT.