Elon Musk pokes at rival Jeff Bezos: Amazon’s new LOTR made Tolkien ‘turn in his grave’

Entrepreneur and tech CEO Elon Musk escalated his long-standing feud with his rival Jeff Bezos this week when he publicly criticized Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings-based series ‘Rings of Power,’ saying the project would offend author J.R.R. Tolkien.

Musk Tweeted on Monday “Tolkien is turning in his grave.” He then added several comments to his own Tweet, saying, “Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both. Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice.” Musk’s Tweets came the same day Amazon Prime Video released the first two episodes of its original Lord of the Rings spinoff, which is set to air until October 14. 

Musk went on to Tweet, “Those who claim any criticism of Rings of Power means you’re racist are outing themselves as closet racists,” referring to the fact that many of the actors and extras in the new series are people of color, which is a deviation from the original storyline. 

While Musk’s comments may not have been directed at popular fantasy author and Twitter funnyman Neil Gaiman, Gaiman was one of the most vocal in response to the Tesla CEO’s criticisms.

“Elon Musk doesn’t come to me for advice on how to fail to buy Twitter, and I don’t go to him for film, TV or literature criticism,” Gaiman Tweeted on Tuesday to his 3 million followers. 

The new series garnered a whopping 25 million viewers within the first day of its release, breaking previously-held records, according to Amazon Prime Video, who said the debut “broke “all previous records, marking the biggest premiere in the history of Prime Video.” Amazon has never released debut numbers for an original show before.