Jeff Bezos says his son told him ‘not to eff up’ Rings of Power series with Amazon

Billionaire businessman also admitted some of his creative suggestions to showrunners were ‘ignored’

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has revealed his son warned him not to “eff up” the Lord of the Rings prequel series The Rings of Power.

Speaking at the UK premiere of the Amazon Prime Video series – at the Odeon Luxe cinema in Leicester Square, London – Bezos talked about how his children are also big fans of the fantasy world created by author JRR Tolkien.

“In fact one of my boys, I think, approaches the level of a Tolkien scholar he knows so much about this universe,” Bezos said in a rare speech. “And 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.’ 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.”

Bezos and his ex-wife, novelist MacKenzie Scott, share four children – three sons and one daughter.

Billionaire businessman Bezos also thanked the showrunners, Patrick McKay and John D Payne, for limiting his creative input.

“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 while introducing the first two episodes.

“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.”

His comments come after Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson said that Amazon never sent him scripts for The Rings of Power– despite telling him they would.

Lenny Henry in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ (Prime Video)

Also present on the red carpet at the London premiere were lead members of the cast including Sir Lenny Henry and Morfydd Clark.

The first two episodes of The Rings of Power arrive on Amazon Prime Video on 2 September, with the new episodes dropping weekly on Fridays.