Amazon’s billion-dollar fantasy series Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has delayed showing reviews for the new show after receiving negative reviews from viewers.
Just one day after the first two episodes premiered on Prime Video, on Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an average audience score of 37%. Reviews on Amazon have reportedly been suspended to “weed out trolls,” suggesting that criticism of the show, which is accused by some of bastardizing the lore that J.R.R. Tolkien created, is not legitimate.
Amazon appears to be trying to protect itself against fallout after allegedly spending over $1 billion on the production of the show.
A source at the company told The Hollywood Reporter that reviews of the series have been suspended and are being held for 72 hours to remove “trolls” and to ensure that all reviews are legitimate.
It’s not clear how Amazon plans to ensure the criticism is “legitimate.”
In comparison, the series has an average score of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics.
On IMDB, which is owned by Amazon, the ratings are not as bad as on Rotten Tomatoes, averaging at 6.1 out of 10. That said, most of the reviews are the best possible score, 10, or the worst, 1 – suggesting that the show is being “review bombed” both positively and negatively, with rating of 10 outweighing any 1-star reviews.
