Game of Thrones was a huge success for HBO. And whenever there’s a successful TV show or movie, there are imitators. The success of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies in the early 2000s led to an explosion in the fantasy genre. The success of Star Wars is still inspiring imitators over 40 years later. It’s just a thing that happens.
The success of Game of Thrones convinced a lot of studios to greenlight their own big budget fantasy shows, including The Witcher, Shadow and Bone, The Wheel of Time and much more. Note that I’m not saying that these series are copies of Game of Thrones, but they’re definitely operating in that show’s shadow, and they’re not the only ones.
Enter The Empire, a historical fiction show that debuted on Disney+ Hotstar — a massively popular Indian streaming service — over the weekend. The series stars Kunal Kapoor as Babur, the first emperor of the Mughal dynasty, and is full of elaborate battles, costumes and spectacle.
According to Vice critic Navin Noronha, there was a huge backlash against the show on Twitter, for a lot of reasons. Noronha was unimpressed with the acting, the pacing, and how obviously derivative the show was of Game of Thrones. “The Empire has plot threads that are eerily similar to GoT, as well as shot-by-shot copies of several iconic scenes from the HBO show,” Noronha wrote. “Two men standing over an icy wall staring at a wild incoming army. Check. The hero’s army ready for battle as the camera pans sideways to show the general marching forward. Check. A woman tied in a loveless marriage who learns to take control of the monster she married. Check.”
"In fact, the poster of the series in which Babur looks at an oncoming horde is a straight-up reference to Jon Snow in the Battle of the Bastards. They even have a discount Lord Varys, complete with an eerily similar backstory about him losing his testicles."
I’m guessing this is the poster Noronha is talking about:
It does indeed look a bit like this scene from Game of Thrones:
I dunno, I think two people can independently come up with the idea of a lone guy being charged down by an army, but the show itself does sound pretty similar to Game of Thrones, and again, that’s not a surprise: popularity inspires imitation.
The Empire director and star deny their show is derivative of Game of Thrones
Just don’t tell The Empire director Mitakshara Kumar that. “They have dragons and zombies, how can people compare?” she asked The Indian Express, I assume rhetorically. “You want to compare our show to Game of Thrones? Give us the budget of Game of Thrones. That show is made on a huge scale. I think our entire series could be made in the budget they use for just 1-2 episodes. If despite having a fraction of the budget, we are still being compared to Game of Thrones, I think somewhere we have done something right.”
To be clear, I haven’t seen The Empire, but it sounds like the criticisms have more to do with how much it borrows from the story beats of Game of Thrones, not the budget. Anybody here seen it who can compare?
Kapoor also addressed the issue. “I think these are unnecessary comparisons,” the actor told Bollywood Bubble. “Comparisons will be made and it is tragic that it is Game Of Thrones because it is a fantastic show. Whenever you do a period drama like that it will be compared to something. Some will say it is like Padmaavat, Bajirao or Game Of Thrones, but it is a different story, it’s a different world, different characters different people. If people are comparing the scale (to GOT) then great, it’s wonderful, but I don’t think there is any other commonality between that show and this show.”
Dost they protest too much? You decide.
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h/t Hindustan Times