Warner Bros. Discovery has seemingly fired off a shot at rival conglomerate Amazon in a recent ad that seems to be handing a subtle diss to the high-profile fantasy series The Rings of Power. The ad release lead-up to the debut of the company’s new Max streaming service, which looks to take even more market share from Amazon Prime Video.
Debuting in 2022, The Rings of Power is one of the most ambitious projects in streaming history and is loosely based on The Lord of the Rings franchise, a globally recognized icon of the fantasy genre and the most famous work of highly revered author J.R.R. Tolkien. While the series was initially well-received on its debut, the show faced stiff competition in the fantasy market, most notably from HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, which at a certain point received double the viewer interest that The Rings of Power did.
Despite Amazon's Jennifer Salke dismissing competition between the company and Warner Bros Discovery when discussing The Rings of Power's fate after new Lord of the Rings movies were announced, her disinterest in engaging with the rivalry now seems one-sided. As part of the ad campaign for the upcoming debut of their consolidated streaming service Max, Warner Bros. Discovery released an online ad featuring a regal Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Throne's iconic Iron Throne. The caption included with the photo touts the new streaming platform as “The One to Watch When You Want to Rule Them All.”
While the caption is thematically appropriate and could be seen as totally unrelated to Lord of the Rings' famous One Ring To Rule Them All, it is unlikely that the team behind the ad didn’t see the potential shots they were about to fire off. For one, shows within the same genre have a penchant to be compared almost from the moment they hit their streaming platforms, so much so that charts show how House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power stack up. Even disregarding this trend, the impending showdown between the Amazon show’s subsequent seasons and the movie projects that Warner Bros. is working towards seem to make the possible dig more credible.
Despite the rise this ad has gotten out of fans, Salke's focused attitude might be the more appropriate stance for the Amazon team, as it's clear now that the first season has ended that Rings of Power viewers weren’t motivated to keep watching throughout the season. With the incoming pressure from a second season of House of the Dragon and the impending arrival of more high-budget Lord of the Rings media, there’s no doubt that things will only be more challenging for Rings of Power going forward.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 is available on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter