Tomb Raider, Schwarzenegger Santa, and MrBeast: Top news from Amazon’s first Upfront
Tomb Raider, Schwarzenegger Santa, and MrBeast: Top news from Amazon’s first Upfront
A few short months after it added ads to its Prime Video service, the Seattle e-commerce giant is jumping into media-buying season with both feet.
BY Sam Becker
Amazon is coming out swinging in the streaming ad wars, announcing a myriad of projects at its inaugural Upfront event on Tuesday in New York City.
Perhaps most prominently, the company announced a new series based on the Tomb Raider video game series (hot off the success of Fallout), a Spider-Man Noir series involving Nicolas Cage, a Road House sequel, and a massive game show hosted by none other than MrBeast.
In recent months, Amazon started incorporating ads into its Prime Video service—a decision that was met with mixed reactions—but it’s evidently paying off, as Amazon is pouring more resources into content development. Here are some of the big announcements from the event:
- Tomb Raider: A new series based on the Tomb Raider video game series is in development, with executive producer and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge working on the project.
- Spider-Man Noir: A new Spider-Man project, based on Spider-Man Noir, is also in the works, and will star Nicolas Cage.
- A Road House sequel: Jake Gyllenhaal will star in a sequel to Amazon’s Road House remake.
- Additional seasons incoming: Future seasons of hit shows Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Reacher are on the way. Cross, a new show that premieres this year, is also already getting a Season 2. Viewers can also anticipate new seasons of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and The Boys in the near future.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Santa: Alan Ritchson, star of Reacher, says he’s also working on a Christmas movie due out next year that will pair him with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will play Santa Claus.
- Rom-coms: Amazon is pairing Will Ferrell with Reese Witherspoon in a new rom-com called You’re Cordially Invited, due out in January.
- Unnamed, but anticipated: An as-of-yet-untitled series starring Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham, concerning female assassins, is also in the works.
- The Summer I Turned Pretty: The popular series is also filming a supersize Season 3, which will feature 11 episodes, including one directed by the author of the novel series that the show is based on, Jenny Han.
- Game shows: Patton Oswalt will host The 1% Club, Amazon’s first foray into game shows. MrBeast, too, will host Beast Games—which will reportedly have more contestants than any game show in history, and a $5 million prize.
- Sports: Thursday Night Football NFL broadcasts enter their third season this year, kicking off on September 12. Prime will also broadcast a wild card playoff game in January for the first time. Subscribers will also be able to watch WNBA and NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) games.
- NASCAR: Prime will broadcast NASCAR races starting in 2025, and premiere a new four-part documentary about famed racer Dale Earnhardt next year.
- Elle: Last but not least, Legally Blonde is getting a prequel series titled Elle.
Amazon’s first Upfront presentation comes on the heels of similar events held by entertainment and media giants such as NBCUniversal and Fox, and shows that the company is serious about duking it out in the streaming wars by leaning heavily into star power and doubling down on sports content.
Advertising is becoming more important to Amazon’s overall picture. The company’s Q1 2024 earnings report, released on April 30, showed 24% growth in ad sales year-over-year to $11.8 billion.
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