Jeff Bezos said his son told him 'please don't eff this up' after Amazon took on 'The Lord of the Rings' prequel

• Jeff Bezos said his son told him "don't eff this up" after Amazon took on its "Lord of the Rings" project.
• The Amazon founder made the comment to an audience at the series premiere, per Variety.

Even Jeff Bezos' son is hoping Amazon's new "The Lord of the Rings" production is up to snuff.

The billionaire Amazon founder told the audience at the show premiere that his son warned him not to mess up the prequel series that debuts on Prime Video this Friday, Variety reported.

"After Amazon got involved in this project, my son came up to me one day, he looked me in the eyes, very sincerely, and he said: 'Dad, please don't eff this up,'" Bezos said, according to Variety. "And he was right. We know that this world is important to so many people, we know it's a privilege to work inside this world and we know it's a big responsibility."

Bezos has a 22-year-old son with his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott.

Some fans have voiced concern that Amazon is merely trying to turn a profit with its Tolkien production, specifically after the trailer was released in February — some pointed out the "too clean," CGI-heavy look of the show.

But Bezos said earlier this month that the project, which will likely get big viewership numbers, hopes to do Tolkien's work justice. The series also notably uses actors in prosthetic makeup for the monstrous orc characters, not the CGI figures that critics lambasted "The Hobbit" films over.

"It goes beyond making a commercially successful show," Bezos told Time. "Everyone working on the show read these stories as kids and our hearts are in it."

Bezos was personally involved in Amazon's negotiations to create a spinoff of the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien universe, Variety reported in 2017. He's a long-time science fiction fan and told the audience at the series premiere that his grandfather introduced him to the works when he was 13 or 14.

"I fell in love with the adventure of course, with the detailed universe, with the feelings of hope and optimism, with the idea that everybody has a role to play," Bezos said, per Variety.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" stands to be the most expensive show ever made, with a record-setting $1 billion price tag. It represents a huge bet on Amazon's part as it continues to compete in the streaming race with Netflix, HBO Max, and other platforms.

The series was filmed in New Zealand, just as Peter Jackson's beloved early 2000s trilogy was, and focuses on Middle-earth set more than 3,000 years before the events of the popular movies.