As summer draws to a close, two expensive fantasy series full of magic, sword fights and fantastical beasts will premiere on rival streaming services. The stakes may be higher for “House of the Dragon,” which will go first. It launches Sunday on HBO and the HBO Max streaming service, arriving as newly appointed CEO David Zaslav looks for fat to trim. Cost-cutting measures have become status quo at the newly merged company, including layoffs and the elimination of content from HBO Max. As Warner Bros. Looking to save money, Discovery is also trying to consolidate its streaming services, which will be expensive and time-consuming. “House of the Dragon” tells the story of the Targaryen civil war that took place about 200 years before the events depicted in “Game of Thrones.” Based on George RR Martin’s novel “Fire and Blood”. Unlike Martin’s other books in the Song of Ice and Fire series, this one features an omniscient narrator who documents the stories based on collected accounts of events. In some cases, these stories contradict each other and there are many versions of events. While both series have mature themes, Martin’s work is aimed more at adults, depicting visceral acts of violence, nudity and sexual assault. While there are big battles in “The Lord of the Rings,” previous iterations were more suited to younger audiences. Both series will release new episodes every week, a strategy that could turn them into must-watch television events and keep audiences talking and speculating about what’s next.
You either win or you die
For Warner Bros. Discovery, the second entrant in the Game of Thrones franchise has a lot to prove and live up to. The last season of “Game of Thrones” left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans, as the showrunners wrote beyond the facts in the material created by the author Martin, who has not yet completed the story in his books. “There was this, this kind of cloud that came down on the original [‘Game of Thrones,’]” said Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor and pop culture expert. “Not everyone despised it, but there was definitely a lot of the opposite of love. To some extent, as we move into all of these, you know, the next chapters in the televised world of ‘Game of Thrones,’ there’s already this sense of a kind of compromise.” At the time, HBO was owned by AT&T. Now, Discovery has merged with Warner Bros. and the new owners have a new streaming strategy. With the company quietly pulling shows and movies from HBO Max and already abandoning projects, analysts and investors see an uncertain future. If “House of the Dragon,” which cost $15 million to $20 million per episode, doesn’t live up to expectations, the next phase of the Game of Thrones franchise could end quickly. Of course, the opposite is also true. If the “Game of Thrones” prequel is a critical success, Warner Bros. Discovery could see this fledgling franchise become a much more substantial part of the pop culture event. “House of the Dragon” has a 78% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 177 reviews. For comparison, the first season of “Game of Thrones” released in 2011 had a 90% “Fresh” rating. In fact, every season except the last season had a score above 90%. The eighth season garnered a 55% rating. No rating has been assigned to “The Rings of Power” yet. The three original Lord of the Rings films each scored between 91% and 95%, while The Hobbit trilogy scored between 59% and 74% from critics.
The road goes on and on
He has also collaborated with the Dungeons and Dragons media group Critical Role to create an animated series based on one of the group’s campaigns and has created his own series based on “A League of Their Own”, a series based on the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child and another. to Tom Clancy’s character Jack Ryan. Warner Bros. Discovery, on the other hand, can also keep revenue data quiet but may be more willing to give away viewership data, he said. The company also “will have no choice” but to cancel the show if it doesn’t perform well, “especially with [recent] withdrawing content spending,” Rayburn said. Of course, the fans will be the final measurement. Although fans criticized the final season of “Game of Thrones,” the series as a whole is still beloved and its ratings were consistently HBO’s highest during its run. If audiences rally behind these shows, whether critics like them or not, then both companies will look for ways to expand their respective universes and provide more content and products in the future. It could also be good news for other fantasy streaming services. Disney+ will premiere its series “Willow,” a sequel to Ron Howard’s 1988 sword and sorcery film, in late November. Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. Peacock and Rotten Tomatoes are owned by NBCUniversal.
