Amazon reveals teaser poster and release date for The Wheel Of Time series during Comic-Con
The adaptation of the epic fantasy novels will finally arrive in November
TV News Amazon
Since Game Of Thrones’ end in 2019, we’ve been waiting for the next epic fantasy show that’ll keep us invested for years to come. Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Robert Jordan’s 14-volume series The Wheel Of Time is a strong contender. Today, Amazon unveiled the poster for the upcoming series during its San Diego Comic-Con@Home panel, and it was announced that the show will premiere in November 2021.
The Wheel Of Time is one of the biggest fantasy novel series, but if you haven’t read the books and don’t know what to expect, don’t fret. Amazon also shared the official log line for the show:
Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.
During the panel, showrunner Rafe Judkins talked about Pike’s instant connection to the story, making her the best choice as the protagonist. “The first time I got on the phone with Rosamund, I could just tell from the way that she spoke about the character of Moiraine that when she read that first script, that it just hit her that she understood this woman,” he said. “And when I talked to her, I knew that she was the only option for this character, because she understood Moiraine kind of in her bones, in a really fundamental way. That’s the foundation of this whole show, and this whole show working, is that you believe the characters that are there. And Rosamund is the best foundation that this show could ever hope for.”
He also mentioned that he outlined “what 8 seasons of the show might look like,” and with 14 books, it’ll be pretty difficult to run out of content even if the show ends up lasting longer than 8 seasons.
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It’ll be nice to see another classic ruined by the superficial contrivances of millennial filmmakers.
needs more braid tugging
They’ll have to develop a special hairpiece for the woman playing Nynaeve just so she won’t do permanent damage to her scalp.
If at least a third of each episode isn’t long, detailed shots of dresses and horses, it just won’t be a proper adaptation.
A prophecied Chosen One who could save OR destroy humanity? What a hook!
Technically, he’s prophesied to save AND destroy humanity.
Rafe said the poster was of an iconic scene from the first book, which is a bit weird since it absolutely doesn’t look like anything in particular from the book. It looks a little bit like Shadar Logoth, but doesn’t depict anything that happened there. It looks a lot less like a Waygate, but I read that some images have been shown of them looking something like this. If that’s true, it’s pretty clear what scene he’s referring to. It’s an odd choice, I think, but I guess it has an air of power and mystery going for it. It’s slightly reminiscent of the Argonath in Fellowship posters.
The phrase “iconic scene” might be kinda misleading. The Ways are an iconic part of the series, but the scene of them going through the gate isn’t what I would itself call “iconic.” But looking at the poster, I can’t really think of what else in the first book Judkins might be referring to.On second look… all the wispy stuff in the bottom and bottom-left of the image, at first I took to be plant matter of some kind, but it’s got weird colors (red and blue) and there’s two red tendrils near the top that make me think this might be Mashadar. Also because the stones to Moiraine’s left appear to be disintegrating slightly, which isn’t exactly something Mashadar did in the books, but I could certainly see them using it as a visual indicator for how Mashadar disintegrates things it touches.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s the Waygate. While it is vaguely arch-shaped, it’s an opening in a larger wall, and there is no vine motif around the arch itself. That would seem to disqualify it from being a Waygate.
It has to be Mashadar coming out as the sun sets. While I know Mashadar is described as a white fog in the books, I could understand altering it for technical reasons… CGI fog and smoke is still pretty bad in general, so I can understand changing it for the purposes of it not looking shitty.
Just in case you’re only looking at the header image (and since AV Club flat out refuses to post any image even when the article is primarily about said image) here’s the full poster: So, not an arch at all, but also seemingly not even part of a wall. If it is part of the wall in Shadar Logoth, then it doesn’t look like part of a ruin, but something that was built to look just like that. It’s not impossible, but given that there’s some grass in front, and seemingly nothing beyond, it looks like it’s not part of a city. Also, even though this is just art and not a screengrab or anything, the implication was that Moiraine was just as eager to get out as the kids were, and I don’t really see her standing at the exit looking back wistfully at Mashadar. If it is the Waygate outside Fal Dara, the wisps could be her gathering Saidar to strike at what could very charitably be seen as Machin Shin, or more likely, the after effects of having just done so.
Just let—and I’m only semi-joking here—Benioff and Weiss take it over. If any series needs to be ruthlessly pared down so we can just get to the fucking end already it’s Wheel of Time.
You have less to worry about than you think. If there’s anything that a tv show might help, and I’m being semi-serious here, it’s paring Robert Jordan’s over-descriptive writing down to two seconds of screen time without having to actually add or remove any material.
Agreed. All of Jordans’ elaborate descriptions will be automatically compressed by virute of the nature of the filmic medium, unless for some reason the showrunners decide to have lots of long, lingering shots of dresses and horses.It’s really the meandering plot developments and inessential side stories (especially from books 7-11) that need to be cut out, but I’d be astonished if the showrunners didn’t know that and didn’t already have a roadmap for which parts of the story will appear in which seasons. Sure, Faile might still get kidnapped by the Shaido, but it’ll probably last for like two episodes instead of three fucking books
Those flowery descriptions, it turns out, will be awesome resources…”Guys…RJ just spent 40 pages describing clothes at a party again….”
“Welp…guess that helps the wardrobe designers alot.”
You don’t have to worry. They’re already doing all of Book 1, parts of Book 2, and bits of New Spring all in season 1.
“Th_Wh__l Of Tim_ !!! “I’d like to buy a vowel.
The Whole of Tim?
god, those books. Twice in my life I tried to get through that series, and each time I got to like book 6 or 7 I just wanted to throw the damn thing against a wall. Wheel of Time is the best example I’ve ever seen of having characters rigidly avoid working together *at all costs* for no purpose than to stretch the story out for another 4000+ pages. also wtf was up with how like every female character in the series ended up getting stripped naked and publicly humiliated at some point? weird. so weird.
Since The Wheel of Time is already finished (as ASoIaF was not when HBO started Game of Thrones) I think it would be smart to go in planning exactly how many seasons to have. Eight sounds great. (Maaaaaybe 10…depending on how many episodes per season and how many books each one manages to cover.)
My only worry about going for eight seasons is that the creative staff and actors could get pretty tired of doing the same show for that long. It’s very rare to find shows that run that long that are still anything but routine or repetitive by that point. To be fair, it’s not like they have to come up with stories or character arcs, but the people involved could still be itching to move on to something else.I think you could easily do the important parts of the story in 7 seasons. One of the great strengths of WoT’s worldbuilding is all the different cultures we encounter (Aiel, Sea Folk, the Ebou Dari, the Seanchan, Tairens, Shienarans, etc.) but I think Jordan erred in giving several of them way too much page time, especially the Sea Folk. The menagerie certainly provides a lot of colorful characters (Valan Luca, Aludra) as well as lots of character stuff for Mat, but the books spend a long time with them that the show could easily condense into a couple of episodes in season 2 and then some revisitation later.
I think it depends on how many episodes they’re doing per season. If it’s only something like 8-10, then 8 seasons sounds manageable to me. And most shows that feel a creative slump in later seasons aren’t based off of books – this one will have the advantage of building toward an already-established climax for the series.I would also hope that a lot of the creative talent coming into this looks at a series with 14 books and understands they might be in this for the long haul.
I want to say there are at least two or three pairs of books that occur concurrently to one another.
As I recall, books 9 and 10 are concurrent (10 looks at where everyone else was during the cleansing of the Source). They could easily be condensed.Books 7, 8, and 11 could easily be condensed, with large swaths of the material excised altogether.
5 and 6 contained some overlapping time, I suspect, given the complete absence of the Two Rivers plotline.
I read the first book when I was a kid and don’t remember a thing about it, but I remember liking it. So I’m both looking forward to this and, thanks to my poor long-term memory, completely unspoiled!
Eight seasons seems reasonable, the massive slog in the middle could have totally been shoved down from four+ books into one. Still, my very favorite series of all time, evah, CANNOT WAIT!
For starters, Book 10 could be condensed into a single episode. On the flip side, I hope they don’t condense The Shadow Rising at all because it DESERVES a full fucking season. It might be the longest but it’s also arguably the best of the series. The Great Hunt would make a pretty great movie but I can see it being about half a season. Here’s my guess at the book-per-season breakdown:Season 1: book 1 with some new material to introduce characters, concepts and organizations that, in the books, don’t appear until later books. (For example: Red Ajah, maybe more Darkfriends, maybe more flashbacks with Tam in that battle with the Aiel and the like, and I definitely think more Padan Fain.)Season 2: books 2 & 3 though this would make for either a long or a pretty dense season.Season 3: book 4 Season 4: book 5 and most of 6Season 5: parts of 6 and 7 and 8. This is where RJ started getting extra-sidetracked and his writing bloated. These books are going to be pared down like nobody’s business.season 6: maybe the rest of 8 and book 9, with maybe an episode about the political bullshit in book 10. Season 7: books 11 and 12. 11 is a good book but it deals with many side plots that are likely to be excised. These two books wrap up several side plots, but said side plots likely being excised from TV before this season means these books are easy to fit into one season.Season 8: books 13 and 14. Any guesses as to how many episodes will be devoted just to The Final Battle? That shit seems to go on forever in the books, lol.
It’s likely Season 1 will include parts of Book 2, judging by the episode titles.
https://winteriscoming.net/2020/09/02/the-wheel-of-time-episode-titles-adapt-eye-of-the-world-great-hunt/
They’re going to get confused with the Bene Gesserit. Although as Dune is a year late maybe HBO was going for the opposite. People are going to think Jordan was original about something. What a mess.
This is one book series I could not get into. Jordan’s writing style just was not for me. I suppose maybe I could try it as an audio book and see if it works better for me that way.
The audiobooks are great… NOTHING is going to change how long-winded the series is, but Michael Kramer and Kate Redding do a good rendition. They’re some of the most experienced in the business, and they do an admirable job of bringing the main characters to life as they obviously fall in love with them as they continue through the series.With all of the extraneous BS Jordan puts in, they still keep you involved through it all.If there is to be any narration involved in the series, I really hope they’re chosen for the gig.