A Beginner’s Guide to The Wheel of Time

There’s no shortage of contenders in the race to become the next Game of Thrones. With more prominent TV and movie projects being announced seemingly every couple of weeks, it’s gotten to the point where even experienced genre aficionados might find themselves scratching their heads over what to watch first. Yet among all these would-be usurpers, there is perhaps one show which deserves a bit of extra attention, a giant that towers alongside the likes of The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire. I’m talking, of course, about The Wheel of Time.

As a book series, WoT stands as one of the pillars of modern storytelling, the saga that solidified the huge, multi-book model which has become so popular in fantasy today. As a prospective show being developed by Amazon and co-produced by Sony, it certainly warrants a hard second look. And third. And maybe fourth and fifth for good measure.

There have already been some major casting announcements, and the show began principal photography this past September. It’s been reported that it will have a longer-than-average filming cycle, which bodes well. As source material goes, The Wheel of Time is about as complex and massive as it gets. While the prospect of adapting it for television is daunting, if Amazon can pull it off, the potential rewards are great.

If you haven’t taken the leap into the books series yet — or even heard much about The Wheel of Time in general — then you might be curious what all the fuss is about. What do you need to know before the series airs? What’s the deal with this Dragon I keep hearing about, and why is it being born again?

Don’t worry. You’re in the right place.

What is The Wheel of Time about?

Set in a world where only women are allowed to use magic, The Wheel of Time revolves around a group of young men and women who are spirited away from their village by an Aes Sedai named Moiraine (played in the Amazon series by Rosamund Pike, pictured above). Aes Sedai are sorceresses, trained at the mystical White Tower to be part of a powerful group that advises governments and oversees all things magical (or so it’s believed at the story’s outset, at least). It is said that kings bow to Aes Sedai, and foolish is the ruler who disregards their counsel.

Try to imagine what five strong-willed teenagers being carted around by one of these enigmatic, ageless sorceresses might be like, and you’ll have a pretty accurate idea of some of the group dynamics that exist on the early pages of the first book.

Moiraine believes that one of the three young men she’s escorting is the Dragon Reborn, the reincarnation of a legendary hero whose magic will either destroy or save the world. It has been foretold that the Dragon Reborn will be able to defeat the Dark One and bring about a new Age of peace. The catch, however, is that men who use magic inevitably go mad, the result of tampering by the Dark One ages ago…and an insane person with world-shattering magic is difficult to count on at best, and outright calamitous at worst.

Of course, best friends Rand al’Thor, Perrin Aybara and Matrim Cauthon are completely oblivious to Moiraine’s theories about the Dragon Reborn. To them, following her is simply about staying alive and drawing the monsters which are pursing them away from their home village. Moiraine’s magic is powerful, and her Warder (a.k.a. magically enhanced bodyguard) Lan is one deadly customer. As huge, horned creatures called Trollocs descend on the peaceful village of Emond’s Field, Moiraine leads the small group of companions on a continent-spanning journey in hopes of reaching the White Tower of the Aes Sedai.

But neither Moiraine nor her charges could possibly foresee how winding and epic their quest will grow to become. Given the length of the series, it should come as no surprise that the characters in The Wheel of Time have tremendous arcs. People who start out as shepherds and blacksmiths become something else entirely by the end of 14 books. We’re talking about a series that is over 4,400,000 words in length here! (For comparison’s sake, A Song of Ice and Fire is currently sitting at around 1,770,000.)

At its core, The Wheel of Time is about the struggle between good and evil, and the way that that battle exists not only on a grand scale, but in the hearts of the ordinary people fighting it. The story has many elements and themes that will look familiar to anyone who’s spent time consuming traditional European-style fantasy, but with some strong Eastern themes such as reincarnation and the cyclic nature of time weaved in to make it more unique. Add to that one of the most richly populated fantasy worlds ever created, with creatures, many original races (human and otherwise), expansive lore, epic battles, tons of magic, and deeply memorable characters, and it’s hard to find many series that can come even close. The Wheel of Time has all the makings of the next big fantasy TV series, and then some.

How was The Wheel of Time written?

Written by James Oliver Rigney Jr. (a.k.a. Robert Jordan), The Wheel of Time has been around for nearly 30 years. The first book in the series, The Eye of the World, was released in 1990, and subsequent books hit every few years with a consistency that could make a Song of Ice and Fire fan weep. Unfortunately, Robert Jordan was diagnosed with terminal heart disease in 2006. Despite this, he remained optimistic about finishing the series, promising to write one more book to wrap it all up, even if it was so big that fans “might need a forklift to get it out the door.” Unfortunately, that book never saw the light of day. Robert Jordan passed away in September of 2007, leaving behind a legacy of 11 main series books and one prequel.

Thankfully, he also prepared extensive notes just in case the worst happened, including drafts of his original vision for some of the series’ final scenes. Within a couple of months, it was announced that Jordan’s widow (and long-time editor) had hand-picked a young upstart author by the name of Brandon Sanderson to finish the series. Sanderson broke up Jordan’s notes for that monstrously enormous final book into a more manageable final trilogy, and delivered on the promise Robert Jordan made all the way back in 1990 with The Eye of the World‘s release: to write one of the greatest fantasy sagas of our age.

That brings us more or less up to speed for the Amazon series. Wheel of Time fans have longed for an adaptation of this beloved story for years and years. The rights have changed hands several times — below, we’ve embedded a Wheel of Time pilot aired without fanfare on FXX back in 2015, a quickie production slapped together purely to keep hold of the TV rights — and there have been enough false starts that many began fearing a screen adaptation would never happen. But with the success of Game of Thrones, fantasy stories are having a moment, and the time has never been better for an ambitious studio to take a crack at this masterpiece.

Amazon has tapped showrunner Rafe Judkins, who seems to care deeply about honoring the source material, and thus far has been doing a solid job of keeping the hype train rolling. Seven of the most important characters have been cast and announced. They’ve brought Brandon Sanderson on board as a consulting producer — as well as to give a thumbs up to some of the changes the show is making. And even more importantly, they have the help of Harriet McDougal, Jordan’s editor/widow as a second consulting producer. It’s pretty much impossible to imagine any Wheel of Time work going over well without her being involved, so the fact that Amazon is keeping her attached to the project is a hugely encouraging sign.

With the show barely two and a half months into principal photography, it’ll be a while before we’re able to sink our teeth into it and form a proper opinion. Luckily, there are still those 14 door-stopping tomes to plow through in the meantime.

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