The Wheel of Time producers answer fan questions—Here’s everything we learned

The Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins and star Rosamund Pike took to Twitter to answer questions from fans about the newly-released teaser trailer. We’ve collected and written out the more revealing questions and answers to get a better understand of how the show is coming together and what parts the cast and crew are especially excited to share with the world.

The Wheel of Time Locations

Which parts of the trailer are you most excited for the fans to see the full version of in the show and why?

"Rafe: I’m really thrilled for fans to see more of Winternight.Rosamund: Shadar Logoth, the city where you really feel how the dark is a material substance that chases and consumes. The visual effects and the extremity of this sequence haunts me."

That “material substance that chases and consumes” is Mashadar, a shapeless evil which haunts the city of Shadar Logoth. It’s a terror to even servants of the Dark One like Myrddraal and Trollocs.

Which location was your favorite to film at? 

"Rosamund: The world inside the walls of Shadar Logoth is particularly affecting and eerie. Our production designer created a powerful, sinister set for the abandoned desolate city. But for me as an actor: the city of Tar Valon was so rich; it was built from the ground up with the most intricate detail. It is stunning."

The Wheel of Time Myrddraal

How many nightmares did that flaming Fade give you?

"Rafe: Not many, as I will always remember him as Dan, who was spinning in circles on his horse on a Slovenian mountain doubling the Westwood.Rosamund: His very feminine lips, concealing rows and rows of teeth give me nightmares… And don’t get me started on the skeleton mask his horse wears."

How much of the Myrddraal is practical effects?

"Rafe: The Myrddraal , like almost all elements in the show, is as much practical as we could manage, enhanced by VFX. I always think that gives a more disturbing and real-feeling quality than full VFX creatures."

Egwene in the water from The Wheel of Time

Is the scene with Egwene in the water about her One-Power/Wisdom testing?

"Rafe: I can answer that question at the end of the Season."

The scene in question concerns Egwene emerging from a pool painted in color. It’s possible this scene connects to the opening scene of the trailer. “Be strong,” Nynaeve says before pushing Egwene into the river. And there’s another shot of her floating along peacefully.

Though this may be a visual representation of learning about saidar, the female half of the One Power, Egwene’s shirt seems to be the same for both scenes.

This might be a part of her Accepted Test, a challenge that forces her to face her greatest fears about what has happened in her life. In the books, Aes Sedai trainees use an artifact known as a ter’angreal to enter alternate realities where they can undergo these tests. Egwene takes her’s in the third book in the series, The Dragon Reborn, which you wouldn’t think would appear in season 1. But Judkins says later that material from up to Book Three is included in the first season.

Moiraine (Rosamund Pike)

For Rosamund: What’s your favorite Moiraine speech?

"Rosamund: Moiraine can be very silent so when she speaks, we listen. In the books it’s the “Weep for Manetheren speech.” The idea that in the people of the Two Rivers, the “old blood runs deep.”"

Here the tail-end of that speech from the first book in the series, The Eye of the World:

"They had paid such a price in blood and hope for their land as had never been paid before, and now they were bound to that soil by ties stronger than steel. Other wars would wrack them in years to come, until at last their corner of the world was forgotten and at last they had forgotten wars and the ways of war. Never again did Manetheren rise. Its soaring spires and splashing fountains became as a dream that slowly faded from the minds of its people. But they, and their children, and their children’s children, held the land that was theirs. They held it when the long centuries had washed the why of it from their memories. They held it until, today, there is you. Weep for Manetheren. Weep for what is lost forever."

For Rosamund: How different is acting in a high-fantasy TV show from your previous work?

"Rosamund: The biggest most important challenge with fantasy is making the stakes your own, making the concepts and ideas that are so outside our own experiences feel real and immediate."

For Rosamund: What was it about this story that spoke to you and made you want to play such an amazing female?

"Rosamund: The way the women of the Aes Sedai harness the elements of the universe to unleash incredible power: that interested me a lot. Playing an amazing female is always better than playing a mediocre female."

Making the One Power work for TV

How were you able to come up with how the weaving of the One Power looks?

"Rafe: All of the VFX teams looking at the One Power were going off documents of descriptions of it pulled straight from the books, and using that as jumping off points.Rosamund: I needed to feel that you would believe Moiraine had this power if there were no visual effects – the most important thing for me was that I felt connected to something greater than myself. Robert Jordan is so eloquent about what it feels like to channel, the feeling of the One Power filling your veins, the risk of it, the risk of drawing too much and the necessity of respecting it and being trained to use it."

How do the final visuals with completed visual effects align with what you had in mind when reading the script/filming on location?

"Rafe: Making a TV show at its best is about collaboration, about seeing how your initial vision for something is lifted and changed and made better by the people around you. So my favorite visuals in the show are ones that are far better than I’d ever imagined writing the scripts.Rosamund: It’s so important to have a living vivid world inside your own imagination when you are shooting sequences that will be completed with CGI, and the production have always made sure that we had plenty of visual references for how things would look as we went along. We have never worked on a set on which at least part of the world is not built. We have always had elements of the texture and atmosphere of the finished world to work with."

For Rosamund: How did you feel seeing Moiraine’s powers visually for the first time?

"Rosamund: I felt like a badass. I said to Rafe when I first saw it, “I need this video of me shooting fireballs to show to my sons again, and again.”"

Miscellaneous

How much will Season 1 cover? Book 1 or spread across several?

"Rafe: Season One will cover Book One, plus some of Book Two and even Book Three. But also not all of Book One, as some of it is in Season Two. Cryptic enough?"

There are lots of things Rafe could be talking about here. He’s been very clear that the show will reshuffle the plot in a way to make the story more consistent for television. However, Camelyn and the Trakand family is a good guess as to what from Book One will appear in the second season.

How excited are you to see your audiences’ responses after such a long wait?

"Rafe: This is a complicated thing, because as a fan of many epic book series, seeing them brought to life is simultaneously thrilling and a little bit sad, as it changes a world that you saw in your head while reading.Rosamund: I love how warm and welcoming the Wheel of Time fan base have been. I hope we offer escape, excitement, mystery and something to keep people inspired through the end of the year."

Can we get some information on the composer or the score for the show?

"Rafe: If Amazon lets this answer go through, this is me proudly announcing that we have the most incredible composer working on the show by the name of Lorne Balfe. You’ve gotten a tiny hint of his music with the reveal of the Logo, and what he’s doing is really special."

Will there be a second trailer?

"Rafe: Yes! And longer!"

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