The Wheel of Time season 2 is already coming to Amazon Prime Video

Lately, Amazon Prime Video is releasing more and more information about its adaptation of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, a 14-book strong fantasy epic the multinational giant is hoping will become “the next Game of Thrones.” According to Deadline, the first season — which has been beset with delays thanks to the global pandemic — is finishing up production.

And apparently, production on season 2 will “follow immediately afterwards.” This is the first confirmation I’ve seen that Amazon has already ordered a second season of the show sight unseen, before the public has gotten a look at the first.

It’s a bold move, but not entirely unexpected for a show like this. Set as it is in an invented fantasy world, a series like The Wheel of Time is expensive and time-intensive to make, and if Amazon waits to see how the first season will do before renewing the show, they’re basically guaranteeing a long gap between seasons and risking losing the attention of the public.

Also, if you’re going to adapt a series as massive as The Wheel of Time, you might as well commit to tell at least a good chunk of the story. And if anyone can afford to do it, it’s Amazon.

How much of the books with The Wheel of Time season 1 adapt?

Adapting 14 books for TV is no small task, and showrunner Rafe Judkins has his work cut out for him. Judkins has said before that he’ll be “condensing…the latter middle section of books,” which are noted for having a plodding pace, but that’s a ways in the future. How much will the first season cover?

Likely, the first season will adapt the first book in the series, The Eye of the World, which came out back in 1990. We’ll meet heroes like Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) and his friends, who are living in the Shire-like fantasy backwater of Emond’s Field. The Aes Sedai sorceress Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) will visit their community and whisk them away on an adventure we could be watching for years.

We’ve seen evidence that the first season will at least make it to the end of the first book, but we don’t know where exactly it will stop. We’ll find out when the show debuts next year.

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