Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in between his attempts to back out of his bid to take over Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), found the time to watch and mull over Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Prime Video’s most recent original production, the Lord of the Rings adaptation The Rings of Power.
The richest man in the world tweeted that JRR Tolkien, the author of the fantasy series the show is based on, must be “turning in his grave,” and made questionable claims about the show’s characters.
Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both. Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 5, 2022
Musk has long been a critic of Amazon’s founder and CEO, and second-richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, so the unwarranted review of the show comes hardly as a surprise. The first of five planned seasons The Rings of Power reportedly cost Amazon over $700 million and is the most expensive TV show ever produced.
A Twitter user asked famed fantasy author Neil Gaiman to weigh on Musk’s opinion on the show, and Gaiman basically dropped the mic.
Elon Musk doesn't come to me for advice on how to fail to buy Twitter, and I don't go to him for film, TV or literature criticism. https://t.co/WpyXhQlqIh
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) September 6, 2022
Gaiman, aside from being a fantasy author who also recently developed and executive produced a successful Netflix adaptation of his comic book series The Sandman, has nothing to do with the Lord of the Rings adaptation.
Not really sure what to do about all of the Elon Musk people who now think I had something to do with Lord of the Rings. Do I tell them that, no, I was asked for my opinion and answered, or warn them that if they think that's bad it's a good thing they haven't watched Sandman. https://t.co/xFFMBVRFBQ
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) September 6, 2022
The author also developed and executive produced the Amazon adaptation of Good Omens, a book he co-wrote with the late Terry Pratchett.
The Rings of Power, despite Musk’s ramblings, has received mostly positive reviews from actual critics and was able to achieve a record of 25 million viewers for Amazon upon its Labor Day weekend debut.
Musk’s ramblings, meanwhile, did not seem to achieve much except perhaps inviting racist outrage over the show’s casting.
As I’ve been saying. Great minds!
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) September 5, 2022
Diversity casting has killed fantasy. Just grateful that we once used to have actual art.
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