Filming on The Wheel of Time shuts down…again

Amazon’s long-awaited The Wheel of Time show has been shut down AGAIN by the coronavirus, likely pushing back the release date. Can’t catch a break, this franchise…

Fans of Robert Jordan’s epic, 14-book Wheel of Time series have been waiting for decades to see a decent screen adaptation. First they waited for the books themselves to finish, then they had to endure a quickie adaptation designed to tie up the rights, and now they have endure interruptions from the coronavirus, as production on Amazon’s new show has once again shut down.

Amazon’s adaptation, which looks to actually be trying to do justice to the source material, started filming late last year, but had to stop in March as the coronavirus was threatening film sets all over the world. However, the Czech Republic, where the show was doing a lot of shooting, bounced back quickly, and filming was able to resume in September.

But things took a turn for the worse in the country; the Czech Republic has been hit incredibly hard by the new wave of coronavirus cases currently sweeping through Europe, at one point having the highest number of deaths per 100,000 people of anywhere in the world.

A lot of that looks to have to do with the government relaxing restrictions way too much after things initially worked out, but that’s a whole other story. The Wheel of Time tried to soldier on for a while with increased coronavirus measures, but the situation has proved too dire. The show only had the final two episodes left to finish shooting, but they’ll have to wait. Ciaran Donnelly, the director of those two episodes, the other day flew back to his native Ireland, one of many countries currently entering a renewed state of lockdown.

Unconfirmed reports have it that production won’t start up again until April of 2021. Since the first six episodes of the eight-episode first season have already been shot, there’s still a chance we could see The Wheel of Time season 1 by the end of next year — perhaps they can get the bulk of post-production on those episodes done during the upcoming inactive period — but seeing it get pushed even further back is also a possibility. That’s just the reality for a lot of TV right, especially shows that are filming around the world.

Amazon could also choose to air the first six episodes and then save the final two for later, but I hope it doesn’t. And then there’s the company’s upcoming Lord of the Rings series, which may get pushed back itself so it doesn’t conflict with The Wheel of Time; one epic fantasy at a time, guys.

At least Amazon finally dropped an official teaser to entertain us:

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h/t The Wertzone