Amazon Just Killed Its Best Fantasy Show—And Fans Are Furious

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was once the crown jewel of Amazon Prime Video programming.

It was intended to not only replace Game of Thrones as the next big fantasy property on television, but also join forces with Citadel to establish Amazon Prime Video as the premier streaming service in the world, nay, the universe. Unfortunately, Citadel has mostly bombed and Rings of Power has failed to live up to fan expectations. Season 2 of Rings of Power saw a 60% drop in overall viewership — a slight issue considering the show has one of the largest TV budgets of all time.

All of this is to say that cancelling The Wheel of Time was a big mistake.

It was just getting good 

Every screen adaptation of a novel has its detractors, and Wheel of Time was no different. Though many fans of the original Wheel of Time book series have warmed to the Prime Video adaptation, many have also criticized its deviations from the books. These changes have had little to do with the show’s quality, and ultimately the first season’s flaws were more due to pacing errors, but Wheel of TIme has risen above its missteps and improved with each new season. Season 3 was uniformly praised by critics and mostly accepted by book fans, and its finale was one of the best episodes of fantasy television in recent memory. Storylines were firing on all cylinders and the effects team worked overtime to deliver heart pounding action. 

Compared to the most recent season of Prime Video’s Rings of Power, which created plot hole after plot hole as it barreled towards a hit-or-miss series of climaxes, Wheel of Time Season 3 was practically Shakespearean.

So why not cancel Rings of Power?

Rings of Power has brought in more overall subscriber revenue to Amazon than Wheel of Time. However, WoT is also significantly cheaper and likely more profitable than Rings. So why did Amazon just cancel Wheel of Time after only three seasons? Sadly, it’s because Amazon MGM Studios has already tied itself to the possible sinking ship that is Rings of Power. Amazon is reportedly committed to five seasons of the show and can’t easily back down now. Wheel of Time, on the other hand, dipped slightly in viewership with Season 3, giving MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins and his colleagues the tiniest justification to drop it instead of the creatively floundering Rings.

Considering Wheel of Time’s fanbase, this may be a bad move

Yes, Wheel of Time didn’t please everybody. Some of the haters were book fans who didn’t like the Prime series’ inclusion of homosexual characters. Others were purists who didn’t approve of the alterations to the original novels’ plots. But the people who unabashedly loved Wheel of Time were far more outspoken, and even launched a campaign to demand the show’s renewal after the Season 3 finale. In comparison, Rings of Power viewer reactions have ranged from “meh” to “violently hate it and believe it is peeing on J. R. R. Tolkien’s grave.” I have yet to see a glowing review of the show, and most Netizens who have watched the series express mild indifference towards it. 

This spells potential bad news for Amazon. Some Wheel of Time fans are already cancelling their Prime subscriptions over Amazon’s dumping of it. And if Rings of Power doesn’t right itself and deliver a mind-bogglingly epic, Tolkienian Season 3, then viewers who only joined Prime Video to watch Rings might end up doing the same.

There’s a dearth of buzzy, good content on Amazon Prime right now

If more Wheel of Time fans cancel their Prime Video subscriptions and Rings of Power can’t retain its viewership either, then what’s going to keep new viewers coming to Prime? With the critically acclaimed The Bondsman recently cancelled, Prime Video’s only uniformly praised current series are Reacher, The Boys, Fallout, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Cross, and The Devil’s Hour. But The Boys, Reacher and Fallout are the only three with real social media buzz, and The Boys is ending soon … 

So was it really a good idea for Amazon MGM Studios to cancel its most acclaimed fantasy property — arguably the best on TV — and one with a Very Online fanbase? Probably not. But I’m not the CEO of Amazon.