The Wheel of Time is the bridge “between Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones”

Comic-Con returned to the internet this year with some amazing panels, exhibits, and contests. Part of the entertainment was a team-up between Amazon Prime Video and IMDb TV for a multi-title panel that gave us lots of new info, including about the upcoming Wheel of Time series.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get a trailer for the series, but showrunner Rafe Judkins revealed much and more in a 15-minute long interview. Fans will be delighted to hear that the dragon will come before the wolf, as The Wheel of Time will premiere in November of this year.

Fans were also treated to the very first teaser poster for the series. It depicts an iconic moment in the first book, Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World. “What I like about it is that for people that don’t know anything about the books, this is a moment where you see our lead Rosmund Pike – Moiraine – looking back over her shoulder,” Judkins said. “[She’s] saying, ‘you don’t know what’s through here, but come along for the ride.’ I think that’s what’s so fun about these books and why people love them.”

We’ve transcribed Judkins’ responses below.

Q: How long has this project been in your life?

"This project has been in my life for what feels like forever at this point. I had read the books when I was way younger.  I first came onto the project with Sony in 2017.and then we started shooting in fall of 2019. Most of us now – its a continuing joke on the show, us all feeling like we’ve given our lives to this project at this point."

Q: The series spans 14 books and welcomes readers into one of the richest worlds ever ever created. At its core, this is an adventure series full of twist and turns, but one that also weaves in a fascinating and very unique mythology. For the uninitiated, can you tell us a bit more about the story and mythology of The Wheel of Time and then – this is a big question for fans tuning in – how closely will the show mirror the story?

"Summing up The Wheel of Time for the uninitiated is a difficult thing to do, but the thing Ialways think of is that it sort of sits in the fantasy pantheon as that connective tissue between Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. It was one of the first fantasy projects that really took you into this unbelievably expansive world and created more POV characters than you usually see in fantasy books up until that time. Obviously, I want to stay as close to the books as we possibly can; these are are really beloved books.There’s a great story there. We want to tell it and we want to tell it in the way that’s best for television. This really is a true adaptation of the series, so there will be a lot of things that are different from the books, certainly, but I think it always stays true to the heart of the books and the spine of the storytelling.I think one of the great things about TV is that it lets the audience bring these characters into their homes and into their lives and you really think of them like friends. You want to see what happens next to them. You feel comfortable being with them and I think that the best fantasy series do that as well and that’s why some of them have translated really well into television.The reason that I always chased The Wheel of Time and really believed in it as a TV show is because I think the characters in it are exactly those kind of people that you keep wanting to come back to. The author, Robert Jordan, was really careful about giving each of them a very full interior life and agendas. They’re always working towards something, even if it’s not necessarily working towards the story he’s trying to tell. All of those characters want something and they push for it and I think that makes for the best television, which means casting is so important with a show like this with characters that are so beloved."

Q: Why was it important for you to bring in such an international cast to take on these roles?

"The Wheel of Time has always sat as as the most diverse fantasy book that came out in its time. I think when you’re adapting it to be on television today, we also need to do that in order to honor the books that are there and make this the most diverse fantasy TV show that’s been on television before. I think that’s something that’s been really important to me the whole way through the process. Bringing in all these people from these different parts of our world is letting us build the worlds within the show too. It’s just exciting when you sit down to dinner with Alvaro Morte from Spain and Priyanka Bose from India and Razaman. Everyone comes together in Prague and makes this this thing more than it would be without them."

Q: When you’re casting for the main role of Moiraine, are you looking at different actor’s works, are you going back through that kind of movie catalog and spotting pieces that remind you of Moiraine? What’s the process and and why did you land on her when you look at a character?

"Moiraine. She’s so iconic. Not just in The Wheel of Time books, but in the whole world of fantasy. You need someone who feels that part and believes it 100%. That’s the thing that was most important to me. I think that these books and fantasy shows in general have the potential to really transport you to another world if the people who are in that world believe in everything that they’re doing, the things that they’re saying, and the things that they’re seeing.The first time I got on the phone with Rosamund, I could just tell from the way that she spoke about the character of Moiraine that when she had read that first script, it just hit her that she understood this woman. When I talked to her, I knew that she was the only option for this character, because she understood Moiraine in her bones in a really fundamental way. That’s the foundation of of this whole show…and Rosamund is the best foundation that the show could ever hope for."

Q: What was something she said to you in that conversation that you remember that you can share with us?

"…I’m talking to Rosamund and it’s on a really weak connection and a horrific thunderstorm. I was like, ‘this is going to be a disaster, I’m going to keep dropping in and out. There’s no way this is going to work.’ And then her voice came through the phone crystal clear. I remember the first thing she said to me. She said, “Rafe. I know this woman. I can be this woman.”I will never forget that because it was the first words that came out of her mouth. You could tell she was so passionate about this character and this story that she didn’t even want to talk about anything else. Moiraine was the only thing she could think of and talk about. I’ll never forget that call."

Q: You mentioned a great word, ‘authenticity.’  How important was that for you?

"I think it’s really important to find that balance around you all the time. I always want to hire people that challenge me and sort of say, ‘is this the right way to do this,’ so you can stick to it. We had people who had, basically, the seminal moment of their lives being in The Wheel of Time writers room and then people who’d never read the books. I think that balance really lets you remind yourself of the things that are important and the things that ring true and not get too tight into the stuff that actually makes the adaptation worse than it would be. It’s fundamentally breaking things just to deliver them exactly as they are to TV."

Q: The Game of Thrones finale taught us all as viewers what happens when you run out of books. Now, I still love that show, but everyone’s so divided. With 14 books, are you ever in danger of running out of story?

"With The Wheel of Time, I feel like my danger will never be running out of books. I think the challenge that we face is how do you tell this story the most cohesively and the most coherently in what is a reasonable number of seasons of television.It’s something I really set out to write from the beginning. I think you really need to know the end of your story when you start telling it. I think that’s true for television, even though it’s serialized. In those many years, I sat down and broke out what I thought eight seasons of the show might look like before I started writing the pilot. I felt like you have to build in this knowledge of where you’re going, and how you’re getting there, from the very beginning in order to tell the stories the best we can."

Q: What do you think sets The Wheel of Time apart from other fantasy series out there, and what do you think fans are going to enjoy the most about it?

"I think the thing that always defined Wheel of Time was both its characters and its world. Those are the two things that I try to say the most true to, because those are the things that drew people in and made them read these books over and over again and give them to their friends and come back year after year for 14 full novels.The specialness that exists in those characters and that world, my job is to figure out how to most effectively bring that to TV. I think thematically right now, a story that is really about balance is something that’s meaningful in the world. I think with our world being very divided and hyper-polarized, it’s really refreshing to see a fantasy series not so much about ‘good versus evil’ as ‘balance versus imbalance.’ I think that is a message that’s worth writing about right now and something that is really meaningful."

See you in November!

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