At Tuesday’s screening of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos revealed that his son warned him not to “eff this up” when the streaming titan began working on the fantasy series, per Variety.
“After Amazon got involved in this project, my son came up to me one day, he looked me in the eyes, very sincerely, and he said: ‘Dad, please don’t eff this up,’” Bezos told the crowd at the premiere, according to the outlet.
“And he was right. We know that this world is important to so many people, we know it’s a privilege to work inside this world and we know it’s a big responsibility,” he added.
Bezos also confessed that he and his family are massive fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels that birthed the beloved film series — and the amount of intense pressure they put him under to uphold the franchise’s legacy.
“My grandfather’s the one who introduced me to Tolkien,” the billionaire said at the London event at the Odeon Luxe cinema in Leicester Square.
“I fell in love immediately, I was probably 13 or 14 years old. I fell in love with the adventure, of course, with the detailed universe, with the feelings of hope and optimism, with the idea that everybody has a role to play. And I’m happy to report that that cycle continues today,” he continued.
Bezos also thanked writers and showrunners Patrick McKay and John D. Payne for making the right call and ignoring his initial show notes “at exactly the right times.”
“Every showrunner’s dream — and I mean every showrunner — their dream is to get notes on scripts and early cuts from the founder and executive chairman,” he quipped.
“They loved that. I need to thank you both for listening whenever it helped, but mostly I need to thank you for ignoring me at exactly the right times,” Bezos added.
The series is set to release on Amazon Prime on Thursday and follows “an ensemble cast of characters as they confront the re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth,” according to the show’s synopsis on the streaming service.
Watch the trailer below.