9 things the first season of The Wheel of Time needs to get right

4. Channeling

There’s a lot of magic in The Wheel of Time. With 14 books over which to develop the magic systems, it can get pretty complicated. Simply put, a person gifted with the ability can channel a godly energy through themselves, and then into weaves of magic they can use to affect the world. In the first season, the most important thing may be for the magic to look good, with the details of how it works coming later.

Recently, the official Wheel of Time Twitter account dropped an audio teaser for the show, with an enticing graphic to go with it. Is there anything fans can gather about what channeling may look like from the teaser, which shows what looks like water droplets shifting and changing into the symbol of the yin-yang, a sign of balance and dualism?

5. Ogier

The Ogier are a race of intimidatingly large but ultimately very peaceful creatures with a thirst for knowledge. There’s something Ent-ish about their methodical approach to life. Their building skills are second to none, and they live in magically protected areas called steadings. They appear on and off throughout the story, with one lovable Ogier showing up as a main character in the first book: Loial, played by Hammed Animashaun, is an adventure-seeking Ogier who provides a lot of comic relief on what is essentially a very dark story. Readers smile whenever he pops up, and he pops up often.

Ogiers could eat up the budget if the show uses a lot of CGI to create them. Luckily, Animashaun measures in at 6’3”, so it might only be a matter of prosthetic ears, noses, costumes and lifts. Plus, he has that friendly face Loial will need.

Loial deserves quality screen time, arguably more than his character had in the books. He’s a beloved characters, so the fans want him to see him done right.

6. Wolves

Wolves play a pretty big role in The Wheel of Time, particularly in the story of Perrin Aybara. We’ve had reports of wolf-dogs on set, so the producers know this too.

A Song of Ice and Fire also had an important role for wolves, but we saw less and less of them as its TV adaptation, Game of Thrones, went on. That’s partly because the wolves on that show were direwolves, and therefore unnaturally big. The wolves in The Wheel of Time are just wolves, so Amazon shouldn’t run into that problem. They seem to be sticking to a lovely group of wolf-dogs to play these roles. And if they feel the need to have them appear larger, directors always have a few camera tricks up their sleeve.