An Amazon executive has commented on the potential of Prime Video airing both Lord of the Rings and the next season of The Wheel of Time back-to-back. Amazon has invested heavily in genre entertainment recently, with series like The Expanse, The Boys, Carnival Row and others forming the cornerstone of their original programming. Two of Amazon Studios’ most expensive series are The Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings, both of which are high fantasy series with expansive casts and based on influential fantasy book series.
Recently, Vernon Sanders, Amazon Studios’ Head of Global TV, spoke to TV Line about how the company would schedule the releases of both fantasy series. Amazon already announced that Lord of the Rings would premiere in September of this year, which raises the possibility of that series airing directly before The Wheel of Time, which had its first season premiere in November 2021 and has been in production for Season 2 since May of last year. When asked whether Amazon Studios planned to air both fantasy series back-to-back, Sanders provided a measured response.
“We are going to be really thoughtful about how we release these shows,” Sanders told TV Line. “In our minds, they are very different shows, but we are cognizant of our genre fans, and we are excited about the collection of content we have — those two, along with The Expanse and The Boys, Carnival Row is coming back, we have a fantastic show with [Westworld creators] Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy called The Peripheral…. We are very excited about the future.”
Amazon does look on The Wheel of Time highly and has generally been impressed by the show’s strong performance during its release. Sanders noted that the show’s performance would translate into an even more ambitious second season. “Rafe [Judkins, The Wheel of Time showrunner] has been a fantastic leader — thoughtful, kind, really dedicated to trying to do this the right way — and Rosamund [Pike, one of the stars of the series] as well,” Sanders said when asked if Amazon wanted a “bigger” second season for The Wheel of Time. “So we absolutely went into Season 2 with a real conversation about, “What can we do even better now that we have introduced this giant world and established these characters? So I will absolutely predict that Season 2 will be bigger, bolder, and a more expansive Wheel of Time.”
All episodes of The Wheel of Time are now available on Prime Video.
