ເປັນຫຍັງ 'Lord Of The Rings' ຂອງ Amazon ແມ່ນຢູ່ໄກຈາກກະແສກະແສໄຟຟ້າຢ່າງແນ່ນອນ

Amazon dropped the latest 2.5-minute trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The ambitious and obscenely expensive (reportedly $465 million for the first season) fantasy show adapts J.R. R. Tolkien’s “Second Age of Middle Earth.” It will launch on September 2, with new episodes dropping weekly. You can see the budget in terms of scope, scale and fantastical effects. I dig the hellish floating corpses shot at 1:15. But it’s also mostly set in new(ish) worlds with primarily unknown actors playing mostly unknown characters amid a story taking place thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit ແລະ ພຣະຜູ້ເປັນເຈົ້າຂອງແຫວນໄດ້. The billion-dollar question is whether anyone will care, beyond initial curiosity, in a show that’s merely somewhat related to a once-popular film series. It’s betting on the generic and abstract over the specific.

The Tolkien books have remained popular best-selling, generational touchstones. However, Peter Jackson’s ພຣະຜູ້ເປັນເຈົ້າຂອງແຫວນໄດ້ trilogy was an Oscar-winning blockbuster franchise partially because of its comparatively unprecedented quality. It made new fans out of audiences who hadn’t read or knew little about the source material. ການຄົບຫາຂອງວົງ turned general audiences, the kind that perhaps didn’t first realize that Strider and Aragorn were the same person or that the first film was going to end on a cliffhanger, into fans of the specific film trilogy. It’s about making a film or show that appeals to those with little connection to the IP. It’s about a high-concept jumanji movie that works as a high-concept, well-cast comic adventure. It’s about an Ant-Man movie that plays to audiences unaware that Marvel replaced original director Edgar Wright with Peyton Reed.

ການຄົບຫາຂອງວົງ arrived in late 2001, offering a towering example of fantasy cinema that had never been seen before. Without getting into better/worse, the imagery and action scenes, along with practical magic, well-integrated CGI and actors playing it like historical fiction, put it on par with the Star Wars trilogy ແລະ Excalibur. It was sold as a newbie-friendly, horror-infused action fantasy. It featured characters we’d like played by actors we kinda-sorta recognized. It starred “Sallah from the Indiana Jones movies, that guy from A Perfect Murder, that kid from ທ່ານ Huck Finn ແລະ The Good Son, Magneto from the X ຜູ້ຊາຍ movies and Liv Tyler! It would $897 million global and be embraced as a game-changing spectacle. ພຣະຜູ້ເປັນເຈົ້າຂອງແຫວນໄດ້ grossed $2.93 billion on a combined $400 million budget. ການກັບມາຂອງກະສັດ grossed $1.1 billion and swept the 2004 Oscars.

That success created a fanbase for that specific theatrical trilogy and its primary characters. Mixed reception aside, even The Hobbit prequel trilogy offered a returning Peter Jackson, sky-high production values, and a few returning favorites. Like George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy a decade earlier, it debuted amid a theatrical world where films of its size (along with Michael Bay’s ການຫັນເປັນ movies) were rare enough to be automatic events. The Hobbit trilogy earned $2.914 billion on a combined $750 million budget. However, theaters are now almost entirely dependent on mega-budget action fantasies. Thanks to a streaming war, the small screens are filled with big-budget fantasy shows like HBO’s ເກມຂອງ Thrones (which preceded this madness), ຂອງ Netflix The Witcher and Amazon’s own The Wheel of Time. Rings of Power will not arrive as a giant among insects but rather just another fish in the sea.

Will IP awareness, sans marquee characters, be enough? Audiences showed up to ພຣະຜູ້ເປັນເຈົ້າຂອງແຫວນໄດ້ because they liked Frodo, Sam, Gandolf, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas. They showed up to The Hunger Games thanks to Katniss Everdeen and ການ Saga Twilight for Bella, Edward and Jacob. Audiences who grew up with the Harry Potter films adored the core characters (Harry, Ron, Hermoine, etc.) along with the “kid goes to wizarding boarding school” high concept. Ditto Netflix’s ສິ່ງ stranger and its marquee characters. Varying quality notwithstanding, the deluge of failed franchises riffing on Harry Potter (The Dark is Rising, The Spiderwick Chronicles, ແລະອື່ນໆ), ພຣະຜູ້ເປັນເຈົ້າຂອງແຫວນໄດ້ (The Golden Compass, Mortal Engines, ແລະອື່ນໆ), Twilight (The Host, Beautiful Creatures, ແລະອື່ນໆ) ແລະ The Hunger Games (Divergent, ຜູ້​ໃຫ້, ແລະອື່ນໆ) ສ່ວນໃຫຍ່ bet on “a big-budget fantasy like that other one you liked” without marquee characters.

Promising audiences a new story in a vaguely familiar world before the popular narrative isn’t automatically enough. Most general audiences will watch the trailer and see big-scaled fantasy adventure storytelling with unknown actors playing unknown characters with “Lord of the Rings” in the title. At least speaking theatrically, that route didn’t even always work for Star Wars as we discovered with solo ($394 million on a $275 million budget in 2018). It only worked once for ສັດເດຍລະສານທີ່ຍິ່ງໃຫຍ່ແລະບ່ອນທີ່ຈະຊອກຫາພວກເຂົາ ($814 million global in 2016) before the curiosity factor began to wane. I imagine lots of Amazon Prime members will sample the early episodes ແຫວນຂອງພະລັງງານ. However, unless it’s genuinely superb, many of them will cash out after a sample. More importantly, many who finish season one will decide they don’t care about season two.

We’ve seen this happen in the streaming era, where a big show debuts with loads to free attention, media coverage and active publicity while season two to debut with a whisper. Think, offhand, The Politician, Russian Doll, Girls5Eva, The Babysitter’s Club, ບັນທຶກໂດຍລະຄັງ ແລະ Uploaded. They can’t all be Mandalorian, and I’m curious whether Paramount+’s reportedly popular halo can keep its momentum in season two. The Lord of the Rings: ແຫວນແຫ່ງພະລັງ is still a significant show based on an abstract pitch (a “new” story with characters you don’t know that took place before the story you liked) rather than one rooted in a specific interest or even a marquee character like “Henry Cavill as Sexy Dude Who Grunts and Kills Monsters” or “Baby Yoda.” Some of these new characters need to become as popular as Jon Snow.

It is another chance for streaming to show that it can develop and manage IP any better than conventional studios. Cowboy Bebop ແລະ ມໍລະດົກຂອງດາວພະຫັດ were critical and commercial disasters. halo wasn’t exactly a critical darling. Netflix is already making the Hollywood mistake of arbitrarily rebooting an IP (ການເສຍຊີວິດຫມາຍເຫດ) that already failed for them. If Amazon can’t “do it” better than the studios, what value do they offer by developing the various MGM properties (Robocop, Stargate, etc.) into new shows and movies? Of all the companies out there, along with Apple, Amazon can most afford to take a swing of this size and hope it works. There are signs The Lord of the Rings: ແຫວນແຫ່ງພະລັງ is repeating the same mistakes that doomed the films that tried to mimic the success of the original ພຣະຜູ້ເປັນເຈົ້າຂອງແຫວນໄດ້.

ແຫວນຂອງພະລັງງານ looks big and expensive, while “just watch it at home” offers an advantage over “drive to theaters” for the casually curious. ຢ່າງໃດກໍຕາມ, ພຣະຜູ້ເປັນເຈົ້າຂອງແຫວນໄດ້ will compete with shows inspired by its initial success. There’s an irony in this: ແຫວນຂອງພະລັງງານ is the latest attempt by streaming platforms to find the next ເກມຂອງ Thrones, which was (commercially) inspired by the blockbuster ພຣະຜູ້ເປັນເຈົ້າຂອງແຫວນໄດ້ series. We’ve learned that the “next ພຣະຜູ້ເປັນເຈົ້າຂອງແຫວນໄດ້” is usually nothing like ພຣະຜູ້ເປັນເຈົ້າຂອງແຫວນໄດ້. ຂອງ Netflix ສິ່ງ stranger was nothing like HBO’s ເກມຂອງ Thrones, which was nothing like Hulu’s ນິທານ Handmaid ຂອງ, which was nothing like Disney+’s Mandalorian, which was nothing like Paramount’s ຫີນເຫຼືອງ. Hell, I’d argue Amazon Prime already has “the next ເກມຂອງ Thrones,” it’s called The Boys, and it’s nothing like ເກມຂອງ Thrones.