HBO Might Be Trolling Amazon’s ‘The Rings Of Power’ With A New Ad

It’s barely been two days after Warner Bros. Discovery officially unveiled Max, and already, the new streaming service seems to be trolling the competition. A new online ad featuring Game of Thrones appears to take a swing at Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

First spotted by The Hollywood Reporter, the new ad shows Daenerys Targaryen sitting on the Iron Throne with the tagline, “The One to Watch When You Want to Rule Them All.”

You can see a screencap below:

Obviously, “One ring to rule them all” is an iconic line from Lord of the Rings. However, the tagline for the ad also works in the context of Daenerys, who wanted to rule all of Westeros, but there does seem to be a clever hint of boasting at play.

Both Game of Thrones and its prequel series House of the Dragons were massive ratings juggernauts for HBO, but The Rings of Power wasn’t so fortunate: More than half if its audience didn’t even finish the first season.

Via THR:

While Amazon, like other streamers, provides only limited data — and internally, it held information even more closely than usual on the series — sources confirm that The Rings of Power had a 37 percent domestic completion rate (customers who watched the entire series). Overseas, it reached 45 percent. (A 50 percent completion rate would be a solid but not spectacular result, according to insiders).

The Rings of Power is still on track for a second season, but that’s not the kind of numbers you want to see for a show whose first season almost cost a billion dollars. Max throwing salt in the wound probably doesn’t help either.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)