Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin is looking forward to seeing the upcoming prequel series House of the Dragon compete with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for fantasy fans’ attention. House of the Dragon . That means fantasy fans will have two big-budget streaming series based on two of the most famous works in the genre to watch at the same time. Some are positioning this as a showdown of sorts. They’re egged on by reports that Amazon spends nearly three times as much on its . As a fan of the genre, Martin is eager to see both shows.
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“I know a lot of articles, the minute the dates were announced, it’s: ‘Oh, the battle for fantasy supremacy. It’s Rings of Power versus House of the Dragon, who will win?’ I don’t know why they always have to do that,” Martin tells The Independent. “I hope both shows succeed. I’m competitive enough. I hope we succeed more. If they win six Emmys – and I hope they do – I hope we win seven. But nonetheless, it’s good for fantasy. I love fantasy. I love science fiction. I want more shows on television.”
In the same interview, Martin notes that the basis of The Rings of Power is an odd one. While there’s been some confusion around the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth recently, Prime Video can seemingly only work from backmatter in The Silmarillion to create its new series, set during Middle-earth’s Second Age.
“It’s kind of a weird deal, as you know. Amazon bought Tolkien, but they didn’t actually get any of the books,” Martin says. “They didn’t get The Lord of the Rings, they didn’t get The Hobbit, they didn’t even get The Silmarillion. I don’t think they got Farmer Giles of Ham or Leaf by Niggle, but they got the appendices, I guess, and they’re constructing a Second Age story about that. There’s a lot of myth about that, so it’ll be interesting to see what they did.”
Despite that, Martin remains aghast at how fans respond to slight deviations from the source material. He has, after all, been on the receiving end of ire from fans himself.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power isn’t even on yet [it will stream on Amazon in September], but if you follow what’s going on online, the controversy about it is like World War Two. They’re dropping atomic bombs on each other,” he says. “You hear controversies about some of the Marvel shows and the Marvel movies, certainly about the DC characters. It used to be if you were a fan of Star Trek, you liked Star Trek. Now it seems like half the people who call themselves Star Trek fans hate Star Trek, and the Star Wars fans hate Star Wars, and the Tolkien fans hate Rings of Power. What the hell? Now maybe it’s because it’s changing, but as a writer you’d go crazy if you didn’t change it somehow. You want to tell new stories, not tell the same stories over and over again.”
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO on August 21st. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power comes to Prime Video on September 2nd.
