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Everything We Know About THE WHEEL OF TIME Series

admin September 02, 2021

“The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills…”

Robert Jordan’s beloved high fantasy series The Wheel of Time is coming to the screen. Finally. The first book, The Eye of the World, arrived on shelves in 1990. And now, decades later, Amazon Prime Video is bringing the world of Rand al’Thor, Matrim Cauthon, Perrin Aybara and so many more to life. It’s a rich story, dense with lore, magic, and about a million characters. The Wheel of Time series contains 14 novels, with Brandon Sanderson completing the last three books after Jordan’s passing. Adapting that much story is a challenge, and a TV series seems like the best way to approach it.

If you don’t know what The Wheel of Time is all about, read this article. Essentially, it’s a sprawling take on the Chosen One myth with adventure, romance, and kick-ass women (Aes Sedai) wielding a type of magic. If you’re ready to learn everything we know about The Wheel of Time TV series so far, keep reading.

How The Wheel of Time Will Be Adapted

Wheel of Time logo

Amazon Prime Video

We know season one has eight episodes, but we don’t know how much story those eight episodes will cover. It’s possible they’ll cover roughly one book per season. Or more likely that they’ll bring in elements from different books as the adaptation dictates. That would be a more flexible way to tell the story. We’ll certainly update you when we have concrete information about this.

Season one’s directors include Uta Briesewitz, Wayne Yip, Salli Richardson Whitfield, and Ciaran Donnelly. Rafe Judkins is serving as showrunner We know titles for the first six episodes:

  • “Leavetaking”
  • “Shadow’s Waiting”
  • “A Place of Safety”
  • “The Dragon Reborn”
  • “Blood Calls Blood”
  • “The Flame of Tar Valon”

We’ve seen a glimpse of the set in a too-short video. This is a look at The Winespring Inn in Emond’s Field. The village is home to Rand, Perrin, Mat, and Egwene before their worlds turn upside down. It’s fleeting, but just seeing this location made me wipe tears from my eyes.

And we have a first listen with a new audio clip. So many goose bumps!

The imagery in the above clip depicts saidar and saidin, the female and male halves of the One Power, respectively. The One Power is this world’s source of a kind of magic. And it sure sounds like Egwene and Perrin running from a certain attack on Emond’s Field…

The weaponry in Wheel of Time is no joke. One notable item is the Heron Mark Blade. Blademasters, masters of sword-based combat, can add the heron mark as a decoration to their blade. And only blademasters are permitted to do this. I don’t want to get into spoilers, so I’ll just say the heron symbol plays into an important moment in the series with our lead character, Rand al’Thor. He carries a Heron Mark Blade, passed down to him from his father Tam. The above video from Amazon Prime Video goes behind the scenes showing one such blade from book, to sketch, to design, to set.

And continuing on weaponry, we have another look at a key blade: the ruby-hilted dagger. We hear the voice of Matrim “Mat” Cauthon say, “All right, let’s make a deal.” In the books, Mat finds this weapon in Shadar Logoth, a pretty freaking evil place. We get a tiny peek at it in the video as well. Perhaps some of that evil rubs off on Mat?

And the first trailer, wow.

The Incredible Cast

Rosamund Pike holds The Eye of the World

Amazon Prime Video

The Wheel of Time books have a massive cast. Like, Game of Thrones has nothing on this series. Judkins has mentioned that he’s not cutting a ton of characters either. Bless him.

Amazon announced the first actor in June 2019: Rosamund Pike as the indomitable Aes Sedai Moiraine Damodred. She’s at the heart of this story. The first character Amazon Prime Video revealed a look at is Moiraine. And she’s channeling the One Power! We see her using saidar, the female half of the One Power, and we possibly hear it too. She’s warning someone, saying, “Do not underestimate the women in this tower.” She’s referring to the White Tower, the home of the Aes Sedai. The video is a brief five seconds, but we’ll take it.

They shared the news of other key cast members in succession:

  • Madeleine Madden as Egwene al’Vere
  • Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara
  • Barney Harris as Mat Cauthon
  • Zoë Robins as Nynaeve al’Meara
  • Josha Stradowski as Rand al’Thor

Additionally, we have all these amazing folks:

Daniel Henny as al’Lan Mandragoran, Michael McElhatton as Tam Al’Thor, Álvaro Morte as Logain Ablar, Hammed Animashun as Loial, Alexandre Willaume as Thom Merrilin, Johann Myers as Padan Fain, Lolita Chakrabarti as Marin Al’Vere, Michael Tuahine as Bran Al’Vere, David Sterne as Cenn Buie, Christopher Sciueref as Abell Cauthon, Juliet Howland as Natti Cauthon, Mandi Symonds as Daise Conger, Abdul Salis as Eamon, Stuart Graham as Geofram, Pasha Bocarie as Master Grinwell, Jennifer Preston as Mistress Grinwell, Izuka Hoyle as Dana, Darren Clarke as Basel Gill, Maria Doyle Kennedy as Illa, Narinder Samra as Raen, Daryl McCormack as Aram, Sophie Okonedo as Amyrlin Seat Siuan Sanche, and Kae Alexander as Min Farshaw.

Release Date

A woman in a cape stands in front of the light in a doorway

Amazon Prime Video

Season one of The Wheel of Time will debut on November 19, 2021.

They wrapped production of the first season in May 2021. Plus, Amazon Prime Video went ahead and renewed the series for season two.

Featured Image: Tor Books

Originally published on October 28, 2020 with updates on December 2, 2020 and February 17, March 17, April 29, May 20, June 30, and August 18, 2021.

Amy Ratcliffe is the Managing Editor for Nerdist and the author of The Jedi Mind, available for pre-order now. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

The post Everything We Know About THE WHEEL OF TIME Series appeared first on Nerdist.


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