# The Last Tycoon (TV series)
*The Last Tycoon* is an American drama television series produced for Amazon Prime Video, based on [F. Scott Fitzgerald](https://www.edgepedia.org/f-scott-fitzgerald)'s final, unfinished novel of the same name and inspired by the life of film mogul [Irving Thalberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/irving-thalberg). It ran for one season of nine episodes, premiering in 2016 as a pilot and streaming in full on July 28, 2017, before Amazon canceled it that September.[1](https://press.aboutamazon.com/2017/6/amazon-original-series-the-last-tycoon-based-on-the-last-work-of-f-scott-fitzgerald-debuts-exclusively-on-prime-video-on-july-28) • [2](https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-cancels-f-scott-fitzgerald-drama-series-last-tycoon/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Source | Adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's final, unfinished novel, published posthumously in 1941; the protagonist Monroe Stahr was based on Irving Thalberg[1](https://press.aboutamazon.com/2017/6/amazon-original-series-the-last-tycoon-based-on-the-last-work-of-f-scott-fitzgerald-debuts-exclusively-on-prime-video-on-july-28) • [3](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/8165/the-last-tycoon) |
| Setting | 1936 Hollywood, in a world darkened by the Depression and the growing influence of Hitler's Germany[4](https://epguides.com/LastTycoon/) |
| Creators | Written and directed by Billy Ray, showrun by Ray and Christopher Keyser; a co-production with TriStar Television[5](https://press.aboutamazon.com/2016/5/amazons-new-pilot-season-featuring-award-winning-and-acclaimed-roster-of-talent-debuts-june-17-on-amazon-video) |
| Lead cast | Matt Bomer as Monroe Stahr, Kelsey Grammer as Pat Brady, Lily Collins as Celia Brady[1](https://press.aboutamazon.com/2017/6/amazon-original-series-the-last-tycoon-based-on-the-last-work-of-f-scott-fitzgerald-debuts-exclusively-on-prime-video-on-july-28) |
| Run | Pilot streamed June 17, 2016; all nine episodes premiered July 28, 2017; canceled September 2017[5](https://press.aboutamazon.com/2016/5/amazons-new-pilot-season-featuring-award-winning-and-acclaimed-roster-of-talent-debuts-june-17-on-amazon-video) • [2](https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-cancels-f-scott-fitzgerald-drama-series-last-tycoon/) |
| Reception | 45% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (42 reviews); Metascore 57 on Metacritic from 30 critic reviews[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_last_tycoon/s01) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-last-tycoon/season-1/) |
| Earlier adaptation | A 1976 film directed by Elia Kazan, starring Robert De Niro, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter[2](https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-cancels-f-scott-fitzgerald-drama-series-last-tycoon/) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and characters
The series centers on Monroe Stahr ([Matt Bomer](https://www.edgepedia.org/matt-bomer)), Hollywood's first wunderkind studio executive in the 1930s, as he climbs to the height of power in a battle with his mentor and the studio's head, Pat Brady ([Kelsey Grammer](https://www.edgepedia.org/kelsey-grammer)), for the soul of their studio.[3](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/8165/the-last-tycoon) Brady is a character based on [Louis B. Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/louis-b-mayer).[3](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/8165/the-last-tycoon) Lily Collins plays Brady's daughter Celia, an ambitious would-be producer; Dominique McElligott plays Kathleen Moore, a waitress who becomes Stahr's love interest; and the cast also includes Rosemarie DeWitt as Rose Brady, Enzo Cilenti, Mark O'Brien, Koen De Bouw, Jessica De Gouw, and Saul Rubinek as Louis B. Mayer himself.[4](https://epguides.com/LastTycoon/) • [8](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-last-tycoon-matt-bomer-dominique-mcelligott-f-scott-fitzgerald/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i)
Stahr is a widower whose wife Minna, a silent-film star, died in a fire, and he struggles to make a film honoring her memory.[8](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-last-tycoon-matt-bomer-dominique-mcelligott-f-scott-fitzgerald/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i) • [9](https://www.tvline.com/reviews/the-last-tycoon-review-amazon-season-1-matt-bomer-848949/) A central plotline involves a German emissary of the Third Reich who demands the studio remove material offensive to the German market; Brady capitulates, as other studio bosses do, because Germany is the second biggest foreign market during the [Depression](https://www.edgepedia.org/depression), while Stahr refuses to go along.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/29/the-last-tycoon-review-amazon-prime-f-scott-fitzgerald-kelsey-grammer) • [11](https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-last-tycoon/)
## Development and production
Billy Ray, the screenwriter of *[Captain Phillips](https://www.edgepedia.org/captain-phillips-film)* and *The Hunger Games*, wrote and directed the pilot, originally developed for HBO with showrunner Christopher Keyser. HBO passed on the project, with Keyser reporting that the network questioned whether referencing a Fitzgerald novel that old gave any advantage, and Amazon picked it up.[12](https://www.avclub.com/hbo-developing-f-scott-fitzgerald-s-the-last-tycoon-as-1798242017) • [13](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/showrunner-stars-talk-amazon-last-tycoon-monte-carlo-192833034.html) Amazon ordered it to series in July 2016.[14](https://avclub.com/amazon-orders-the-last-tycoon-to-series-1798249906)
The pilot was released on June 17, 2016 as part of Amazon's pilot season, a development process in which customers stream and review pilots to help choose which become series.[5](https://press.aboutamazon.com/2016/5/amazons-new-pilot-season-featuring-award-winning-and-acclaimed-roster-of-talent-debuts-june-17-on-amazon-video) Ray argued that the novel's unfinished state was an advantage for adaptation, since the show would not be measured against a finished, perfect work of art; he called the novel an enormous launching pad that never launched a rocket.[15](https://www.nexttv.com/blog/last-tycoon-examines-hollywood-then-and-now-167556) The production drew on notable behind-the-scenes talent, including production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein, costume designer Janie Bryant, and composer Mychael Danna, with Pulitzer-winning Fitzgerald scholar A. Scott Berg as consulting producer.[1](https://press.aboutamazon.com/2017/6/amazon-original-series-the-last-tycoon-based-on-the-last-work-of-f-scott-fitzgerald-debuts-exclusively-on-prime-video-on-july-28)
## Reception and cancellation
Critical response was mixed. The Rotten Tomatoes critics' consensus described the series as an old-fashioned tour through Fitzgerald's vision of Hollywood with lush production values but no storytelling hook or compelling character, an inert bauble pleasing to look at but elusive to feel.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_last_tycoon/s01) Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 57, labeled mixed or average, based on 30 critic reviews, while user ratings were generally favorable at 6.4 out of 10.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-last-tycoon/season-1/) Reviewers repeatedly compared the show to *Mad Men*, with *Time* calling Bomer's Stahr a sort of proto-[Don Draper](https://www.edgepedia.org/don-draper) and judging the series a missed opportunity after a gorgeous ten hours.[16](https://time.com/4865978/the-last-tycoon-amazon-review/) The *Wall Street Journal* was an outlier in praise, citing superb writing, wit, and huge ambition with no dead spots.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-last-tycoon/season-1/)
Amazon canceled the series on September 9, 2017, ending its run at nine episodes. It was the second Fitzgerald-related drama the service dropped within days, following *Z: The Beginning of Everything*, about Fitzgerald's wife Zelda. Reporting attributed the cancellations to an effort to streamline spending and focus on one tentpole hit, and noted that *The Last Tycoon* was expensive to produce without earning the critical reverie that might earn renewal.[2](https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-cancels-f-scott-fitzgerald-drama-series-last-tycoon/) • [17](https://www.tvguide.com/news/the-last-tycoon-canceled/)
## Relation to the novel and the 1976 film
Fitzgerald's novel, left unfinished at his death in December 1940 and published in 1941 in an edition shaped by the critic [Edmund Wilson](https://www.edgepedia.org/edmund-wilson), had earlier been adapted as a 1976 film directed by [Elia Kazan](https://www.edgepedia.org/elia-kazan) with a screenplay by [Harold Pinter](https://www.edgepedia.org/harold-pinter), starring Robert De Niro as Stahr alongside Tony Curtis, Jack Nicholson, and Robert Mitchum.[18](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780511271113_A23690855/preview-9780511271113_A23690855.pdf) • [2](https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-cancels-f-scott-fitzgerald-drama-series-last-tycoon/) The series departs from a literal reading: Bomer and McElligott told CBS News that the show aims to capture the essence of the novel rather than a more literal interpretation, and it expands the cast with real figures such as Thalberg and Mayer appearing alongside the fictional Stahr, a mix some critics found ineffective.[8](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-last-tycoon-matt-bomer-dominique-mcelligott-f-scott-fitzgerald/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-last-tycoon/season-1/)
## References
1. [Amazon Original Series The Last Tycoon Debuts Exclusively on Prime Video on July 28, Amazon US Press Center](https://press.aboutamazon.com/2017/6/amazon-original-series-the-last-tycoon-based-on-the-last-work-of-f-scott-fitzgerald-debuts-exclusively-on-prime-video-on-july-28)
2. [Amazon Cancels F. Scott Fitzgerald Drama Series 'The Last Tycoon', TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/amazon-cancels-f-scott-fitzgerald-drama-series-last-tycoon/)
3. [The Last Tycoon, TVmaze](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/8165/the-last-tycoon)
4. [The Last Tycoon: a Titles & Air Dates Guide, epguides.com](https://epguides.com/LastTycoon/)
5. [Amazon's New Pilot Season Debuts June 17 on Amazon Video, Amazon US Press Center](https://press.aboutamazon.com/2016/5/amazons-new-pilot-season-featuring-award-winning-and-acclaimed-roster-of-talent-debuts-june-17-on-amazon-video)
6. [The Last Tycoon: Season 1, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_last_tycoon/s01)
7. [The Last Tycoon season 1 Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-last-tycoon/season-1/)
8. ["The Last Tycoon" stars bring world of F. Scott Fitzgerald to the screen, CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-last-tycoon-matt-bomer-dominique-mcelligott-f-scott-fitzgerald/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab4i)
9. ['The Last Tycoon' Review: Amazon's Hollywood Drama, TVLine](https://www.tvline.com/reviews/the-last-tycoon-review-amazon-season-1-matt-bomer-848949/)
10. [The Last Tycoon review – glamour, glitter and Nazism in Hollywood's golden age, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/29/the-last-tycoon-review-amazon-prime-f-scott-fitzgerald-kelsey-grammer)
11. [The Last Tycoon TV Show on Amazon, TV Series Finale](https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-last-tycoon/)
12. [HBO developing F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon as a series, The A.V. Club](https://www.avclub.com/hbo-developing-f-scott-fitzgerald-s-the-last-tycoon-as-1798242017)
13. [Amazon's 'The Last Tycoon' Screens in Monte Carlo After Public Pilot-Rating Process, Yahoo Entertainment](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/showrunner-stars-talk-amazon-last-tycoon-monte-carlo-192833034.html)
14. [Amazon orders The Last Tycoon to series, The A.V. Club](https://avclub.com/amazon-orders-the-last-tycoon-to-series-1798249906)
15. ['The Last Tycoon' Examines Hollywood Then, and Now, Next TV / Broadcasting+Cable](https://www.nexttv.com/blog/last-tycoon-examines-hollywood-then-and-now-167556)
16. [Amazon Tries to Complete F. Scott Fitzgerald's Unfinished Novel, Time](https://time.com/4865978/the-last-tycoon-amazon-review/)
17. [The Last Tycoon Canceled After One Season, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/news/the-last-tycoon-canceled/)
18. [Filming an unfinished novel: The Last Tycoon (Robert Sklar), Cambridge University Press preview](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780511271113_A23690855/preview-9780511271113_A23690855.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Adapted and franchise screen series › Literary and classic serial adaptations › Historical and epic drama adaptations*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license