A Game of Thrones vet and an Oscar nominee join Amazon’s Wheel of Time show

Amazon has cast two key roles in its upcoming Wheel of Time show, bringing in a Game of Thrones alum and an Academy Award nominee. Not too shabby.

Amazon is hard at work making an adaptation of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. Jordan’s novels are notorious for their huge number of characters, but Amazon is keeping pace, regularly making new casting announcements on Twitter.

Today, Amazon revealed who will be playing two major characters: Min, an ally and friend of main character Rand al’Thor; and Siuan Sanche, the leader of the Aes Sedai, a powerful sisterhood of sorceresses who hold sway over much of Jordan’s fantasy world.

First up, British actor Kae Alexander has been confirmed as Min, a young woman with a mysterious talent for foretelling:

Alexander has is a lot of credits, appearing in stuff like Ready Player One, Fleabag and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. However, Game of Thrones fans will be most familiar with her work as Leaf, one of the Children of the Forest who helps Bran Stark in season 6.

Meanwhile, British actor Sophie Okonedo will play Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat seat herself:

Okonedo has a long resume, and received an Academy Award nomination for playing Tatiana Rusesabagina in 2004’s Hotel Rwanda. Although it’s unconfirmed, we’ve also heard that Amazon may have cast Keira Chansa as a younger version of Siuan Sanche, suggesting we could be in for flashbacks.

In fact, the fact that Amazon has cast Siuan at all — along with several other Aes Sedai — is interesting, since the only Aes Sedai we meet in the first book, The Eye of the World, is Moiraine, who will be played by fellow Academy Award nominee Rosamund Pike. It sounds like the first season of Amazon’s show is going to go off the beaten path a bit. Perhaps we’ll see what’s happening at Tar Valon, the Aes Sedai stronghold, while Rand and crew are getting acquainted with Moiraine. Maybe season 1 will spill over into The Great Hunt, the second book, or perhaps it’s something we haven’t guessed.

The cast of Amazon’s show is already huge and just getting bigger, but these announcements are big deals, since both Min and Siuan have big roles to play.

What do we think of the castings? And with Min and Siuan off the board, who are the biggest names we still want to hear about?

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels