Elon Musk took to Twitter to express his thoughts on “The Rings of Power,” adding fuel to the controversial fire “The Lord of the Rings” prequel.
The first two episodes of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” were released on September 1st, with eight episodes planned for season one. The “LoTR” prequel has fans buzzing on social media, and it has now piqued the interest of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Recently, the show sparked debate over certain casting decisions.
In a recent tweet, the tech mogul expressed his displeasure with the Amazon Prime-streamed series, even mentioning the late author of the book series, J.R.R. Tolkien. In addition, the tech mogul criticized the portrayal of male characters in the series’ first two episodes.
Musk has a long-running feud and rivalry with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. In November 2017, Amazon acquired the television rights to “The Lord of the Rings.”
Ironically, Musk is facing online backlash on his social media platform, Twitter. Some fans react to the controversial thread by comparing him to Saruman, a power-hungry wizard who appears as one of the antagonists in “LoTR.”
Meanwhile, other internet users believe that the late “Lord of the Rings” author would disagree with Musk, among other disparaging remarks.
Topping it all off, Tolkien’s “best mate” author Neil Gaiman responded to Elon Musk’s tweet.
According to an Amazon representative, Amazon recently delayed user reviews for three days in an attempt to prevent internet trolls from “review bombing” their series. The 72-hour delay would be used to filter “real” user reviews from internet bots.
Variety reported that the “Lord of the Rings” prequel:
“has been fending off trolls for months, especially ones who take issue with the decision to cast actors of color as elves, dwarves, harfoots and other folk of Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth.”
Despite the online backlash, “The Rings of Power” has been hailed as the largest premiere viewership ever for Amazon Prime, with 25 million viewers on its first day.