Amazon picked up a new TV adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings recently for an eye-watering reported price tag of $250 million, but HBO didn’t even bid for it.
Asked what the next big show will be for HBO, Variety reported Plepler as saying it had ‘several creative bets’ but that it’s impossible to predict if a show “will hit the zeitgeist like Sopranos did, like Game of Thrones did.”
According to Variety, CEO Richard Plepler said this was because it already has a little-known fantasy franchise called Game of Thrones.
It makes sense that HBO wouldn’t want to bring another fantasy series on board, as it’s currently busy choosing between five different Game of Thrones spin-offs that are in development.