The Wheel of Time fans have long suspected that there may have been more to Prime Video canceling The Wheel of Time than originally revealed, and now, it seems like those suspicions have been confirmed.
According to a new report from The Ankler, Prime Video's agreement with the Tolkien estate $20 million per season if the streamer cancels The Rings of Power before the five-season plan is complete. In other words, if the show was canceled after season 3, which is currently in the works, Prime Video would cough up $40 milllion to the estate as a "kill fee."
The Rings of Power is easily Prime Video's most expensive series of all time. Reports claim it has cost Prime Video over $1 billion so far. With the rights, marketing, and everything included, it's the most expensive TV series ever, and the ratings, which are also referenced in the report, do not back up Prime Video spending that much money on this series.
But, that's not all! A former Amazon "prolific showrunner" reportedly claimed that Prime Video is paying so much for The Rings of Power that there were fears their shows would even be fully funded.
""All of their money is taken up with Lord Of The Rings," according to the showrunner.
Again, that's not all! They also said:
"You’re left wondering if you’ll be able to get what you need in order to produce your show."
While Prime Video saving The Rings of Power was not mentioned as the exact reason for canceling The Wheel of Time, it's pretty clear that the money Prime Video is putting up for The Rings of Power has to, at least, be partially responsible for The Wheel of Time's doom.
The Wheel of Time, despite being a relatively expensive series, is a drop in the bucket compared to The Rings of Power. Estimates put The Wheel of Time's budget around $10-16 million per episode for the first three seasons. WOT Series reports the seasons cost somewhere between $80-120 million. That's pocket change compared to The Rings of Power!
From a money perspective, it makes little sense to cancel The Wheel of Time and keep The Rings of Power. The report did mention Prime Video is controlling costs a little more effectively for The Rings of Power season 3, but it's still a much more expensive series.
Unfortunately, the cost isn't the only thing that factors into these decisions, and it's always a ratio cost to viewership. Despite declines during The Rings of Power season 2, the show likely still drew more viewers than The Wheel of Time, in total, but again, with a much bigger budget and marketing.
And, look, there were likely many reasons why The Wheel of Time was canceled at Prime Video. Other Prime Video shows with smaller budgets performed better. Viewership on the series basically flatlined. It didn't drop off drastically, but it didn't really increase season over season, which is something streamers like to see. As TV shows continue, the more expensive the cast and other aspects of the series become. All of that likely contributed to Prime Video's decision to cancel the franchise.
But, it still doesn't sit well with fans, nor should it. When one show dominates so much of a streamer's overall TV budget like The Rings of Power reportedly does at Prime Video, it makes things a lot harder for the other shows to survive. It's a simple math problem. The other shows get less because one show gets more, and that impacts all areas of the series from locations to story to casting decisions to post-production to marketing and more.
Could The Wheel of Time done better with more marketing? Of course. Could Rafe Judkins and his team have made different creative decisions to thwart some of the common criticisms of the show? It's possible. Could a few more episodes in each season helped satisfy book fans to keep them interested? Could Prime Video have done a better job bridging the gap between die-hard book fans and those who had never heard of The Wheel of Time before season 1? All of those things are probably true, and I think they would have made a difference.
At the end of the day, this is all about money. When one show is getting so much of it from one network, it just makes it harder for others to exist.
For me, it's not all The Rings of Power's fault. I like that Prime Video was one of the networks to take a chance and try to bring us more stories from The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings, and it's just a bummer that neither worked out as well as any of us hoped they would so far.