Thread by @Variety

Over the 2010s, fantasy series transformed to a major cultural force, driving viewership & winning awards. But there’s something different about the new premieres, including #TheSandman, #HouseOfTheDragon, #TheRingsOfPower & #InterviewWithTheVampire. 🧵 bit.ly/3dzEQIn

With competition for subscribers growing fiercer, media companies have increasingly turned to well-known genre franchises, including #TheWitcher and #TheLegendOfVoxMachina, in a hungry grab for IP that they hope comes with a built-in fan base. bit.ly/3dzEQIn

Launching a franchise that perpetuates for years needs time to grow, but some platforms have chosen to jump-start the process, greenlighting a show’s second season well in advance. Amazon has publicly committed to produce 50 hours of “The Rings of Power.” bit.ly/3dzEQIn

Between purchasing the rights from the Tolkien estate and production and marketing costs, Amazon is likely to spend upwards of $1 billion on just the eight-episode first season of “The Rings of Power.” bit.ly/3dzEQIn

HBO, Netflix and AMC are also shelling out small fortunes to compete in a landscape in which cinematic production value and spectacle are seen as preconditions for top-tier success. And that success is far from foreordained. bit.ly/3dzEQIn

“You take one false step and the whole thing blows up," says Mark Johnson, the chief producer overseeing AMC’s Anne Rice universe. "You do one piece of miscasting, or you make something funny that is sacrosanct, and you’ve undone the whole thing.” bit.ly/3dzEQIn

The first two installments of Neil Gaiman’s 10-volume graphic novel series make up Season 1 of #TheSandman. If future seasons keep to that pace, Netflix will need to produce at least five seasons of the show in order to tell the story in its entirety. bit.ly/3dzEQIn

“We’re putting all of our chips in the middle,” says Netfix's Peter Friedlander. “We really feel like this is an opportunity to tell a dark fantasy story that is completely different from anything else in the marketplace right now. We’re coming in bold.” bit.ly/3dzEQIn

It’s almost too easy to pit “The Rings of Power” and “House of the Dragon” against each other in the TV colosseum.

Those involved with both shows were at pains with Variety to make clear there isn’t a rivalry between them, friendly or otherwise. bit.ly/3dzEQIn

“What a great time for people where you have these two huge, iconic worlds that people are so invested in and love so much, to be able to explore them at the same time,” says Vernon Sanders, global TV chief at Amazon Studios. bit.ly/3dzEQIn

“Having ‘Lord of the Rings’ on when ‘House of the Dragon’ is on, I don’t see it as only one can survive," says HBO/HBO Max content chief Casey Bloys. "I’m also not that worried about what anybody else is doing. I can only concentrate on what we’re doing.” bit.ly/3dzEQIn

Some fans have already decided that several of these shows have strayed too far in the effort to give a fresh perspective. The decision to cast actors of color as elves, dwarfs & harfoots in “The Rings of Power” unleashed a torrent of racist abuse. bit.ly/3dzEQIn

#HouseOfTheDragon's Steve Toussaint addressed backlash on playing a role written as white: “There are people outside who find it a little hard to stomach that someone who looks like me would play this part. But that’s an issue they have to deal with." bit.ly/3dzEQIn

“We have to know that some people are going to love all of the choices, some people are going to love some and not others, and some people are just not going to feel like it’s their version of it. And that’s OK," said Amazon’s Vernon Sanders. bit.ly/3dzEQIn

Read the full story from Variety's @adambvary and @jmaasaronson on TV's big fantasy gamble: variety.com/2022/tv/news/l…