Amazon says Wheel Of Time is its most-watched premiere of 2021
The series stars Rosamund Pike as a magic user trying to track down the man who might be able to save the world
Once, in the distant past of the First Age Of Streaming—i.e., 2017 or so—the Merchant Tyrant Jeff Bezos issued a proclamation to his hundreds of thousands of digital serfs: “Make me a Game Of Thrones, to better embiggen my Amazon empire.”
And lo, did the content creators toil to fulfill their Dark Lord’s edict. Rights were purchased, billions were spent, New Zealand tax arrangements were arranged. And while much of the focus of the Bezosian Conquest was on Amazon’s eventual Lord Of The Rings show—still expected to be among the most expensive TV series ever produced—that return trip to Middle-Earth did have a fantasy adaptation forerunner, of sorts: The streamer’s glossy spin on Robert Jordan’s The Wheel Of Time, which debuted on Amazon earlier this month.
