See official images from The Wheel of Time on Amazon

(We aren’t going to embed the images from the show in this post in case of legal trouble, but we link to all of them so you can see them.)

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is one of literature’s great fantasy series, a 15-book behemoth (counting the prequel novel New Spring) published over the course of 23 years. The story, about a group of unassuming country-dwellers whisked away on a globe-trotting adventure that will change the face of the world, was so big that Jordan died before completing it; fellow fantasy author Brandon Sanderson stepped in to finish the final three novels.

So Amazon has a big job ahead of it, but things look like they’re moving along smoothly. The first season of the show comes out later this year, and Entertainment Weekly just ran a story that debuted lots of new photos. To start, CHECK OUT THE MAIN CAST ARRAYED IN A LINE. From left to right we have: Zoë Robins as Nynaeve al’Meara, Barney Harris as Matrim Cauthon, Daniel Henney as Lan Mandragoran, Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred, Madeleine Madden as Egwene al’Vere, Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, and finally Josha Stradowski as Rand al’Thor.

Amazon has fronted Moiraine as a key character in the story, perhaps because Rosamund Pike is the biggest name in the show. “Moiraine is the guide figure in this world, the mysterious stranger who comes to town and changes their lives forever,” Pike told EW. “They leave with her on a journey that will either save or destroy humanity.”

The women of The Wheel of Time

Pike is a member of an order of sorceresses called the Aes Sedai who take it upon themselves to keep order in a chaotic world. One of the ways they do this is by hunting down men who have managed to tap into the One Power, the source of magic the Aes Sedai use to work their spells. Long ago, both men and women could use the One Power, but a figure called the Dark One tainted the male half of the power, meaning that any men who use it are eventually driven mad. And no one wants a mad wizard destroying everything, hence why these men must be dealt with.

One such man we see the Aes Sedai deal with in the first book, The Eye of the World, is Logain, who will be played on the show by Alvaro Morte. As you can tell from THIS SHOT, the Aes Sedai have him well in hand…for now.

Unlike other fantasy series of the time, The Wheel of Time put female characters — Aes Sedai and otherwise — at the center of the story. “There are not just a bunch of princesses swanning around in pretty dresses,” said costumer designer Isis Mussenden. “These are women doing jobs. They’re taking care of the governance, they’re taking care of healing.”

The Wheel of Time vs Game of Thrones

Showrunner Rafe Judkins outlined more ways that The Wheel of Time distinguishes itself from other fantasy franchises:

"Wheel of Time is the first fantasy series that really dove into the political and cultural worlds of all these different characters. It was also one of the first to dive into multiple POV characters, so you’re following an ensemble, with each of them having their own agendas and approaches to everything. That’s always felt to me like the missing piece of the fantasy-literature landscape that hasn’t been brought to TV or film yet."

It’s true that The Wheel of Time was one of the first big fantasy series to do this sort of thing, but you may be reading that and feeling a sense of deja vu. Because an unavoidable fact of this show is that it’s only getting made because another fantasy series before it was a huge hit: HBO’s Game of Thrones. And indeed, Game of Thrones series had a lot of what Judkins and Mussenden talk about above, including multiple POVs, an ensemble cast, prominent female characters, rich political dimensions, and so on. I’m not saying The Wheel of Time is the same thing as Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire, because it’s definitely not, but they’re in each other’s shadow, which is something the show will have to deal with.

Ultimately, it sounds like Judkins has faith in the text. “I try to stick to the spine and the heart of the books, and bring that to the screen. If I can successfully do that, the story and the characters will sell themselves.” I think that’s the right approach, because a lot of these characters are very memorable. For instance, here we have A SHOT OF RAND AL’THOR AND EGWENE AL’VERE, childhood friends from the Two Rivers, taking a beat. Both of them go on monumental journeys. If the show is done right, fans could fall in love with them.

See Shadar Logoth on The Wheel of Time

One thing we can be certain of is that The Wheel of Time will look fantastic — it’s made with Amazon money, after all. And Judkins, who sounds like a passionate fan, seems like the right guy to put those resources to good use. “We literally built Shadar Logoth from scratch just for 15 minutes of airtime, because it’s that important to the series,” Judkins said of a shrouded city our heroes visit early on. “That’s where it becomes very clear it’s not just the forces of good and evil. There are lots of different angles.”

You can see A SHOT OF SHADAR LOGOTH HERE.

The Wheel of Time premieres on Amazon Prime Video this November. Amazon is swinging big with this one, and I hope they knock it out of the park.

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