The Wheel of Time boss teases major book change in season 2

JordanCon, a yearly gathering where fans of The Wheel of Time can get together to share their love of the book series and its creator Robert Jordan, took place late last month, and a lot of interesting stuff came out of it. The Wheel of Time has long since grown beyond Jordan’s epic sequence of fantasy books, which was completed by Brandon Sanderson after the author’s untimely passing. Nowadays, fans are getting a new turning of the wheel with the television adaptation on Amazon Prime, which aired its first season last November.

Some of the cast and crew from the show were on hand virtually at the convention to tease what lies ahead. During the lengthy Q&A video, we got the reveal that Killing Eve veteran Ayoola Smart will be playing the Aiel Maiden of the Spear Aviendha and that season 2 will explore the “darker side” of Liandrin, an Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah, who’s already a bit of a villain.

There were plenty of other fascinating tidbits to come out of the Q&A, including a few major hints about season 2. We’re going to be discussing some SPOILERS for books 2 and 3 of The Wheel of Time here in order to make more sense of the teases, so be warned!

The Wheel of Time season 2 will have different characters in Falme

Showrunner Rafe Judkins opened the Q&A by announcing that The Wheel of Time season 2 is still filming, and that he was speaking from the show’s set in Morocco where “a pretty iconic fight scene from the books” was being rehearsed across the room from him. He followed up by announcing the casting of Ayoola Smart as Aviendha.

“Ayoola’s been fantastic. She is a part of the fight scene that’s happening right around the corner right now. So it feels very fitting to be announcing her in this place, where we’re seeing her months of hard work learning how to use spears, how to do flips, how to pull up a veil and convey a death glare with her eyes all come into play,” Judkins said. “This woman is gonna make you very, very excited to see more of the world of the Aiel.”

All that’s intriguing enough, but where things get really juicy is the location of the fight scene. When asked to tease season 2 in only five words, the showrunner said, “we are going to Falme,” while gesturing at his surroundings.

How will The Wheel of Time season 2 change the Battle of Falme?

Let’s dig into this a little bit. As book readers will know, Falme is a large city on the western coast of the main continent where The Wheel of Time takes place, which becomes occupied by the invading Seanchan forces we saw making landfall at the end of season 1. The climax of book 2, The Great Hunt, revolves around various characters and factions coming together at Falme for a huge battle.

Aviendha is not present for the battle at Falme in The Great Hunt, since she isn’t introduced until book 3, The Dragon Reborn. Given that Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) set off on his own at the end of The Wheel of Time season 1, which seems to set him up for his plotline from The Dragon Reborn, we figured that season 2 will combine elements of books 2 and 3. With Aviendha’s inclusion in the battle of Falme, that’s basically confirmed.

The next big question is which “iconic fight scene” from the books Judkins could be referring to. For my money, the most iconic fights in Falme are the two that involve Rand: when he duels the Seanchan blademaster Turak and then later when he magically clashes with Ba’alzamon (Ishamael) in the sky over the battlefield. It’s hard to imagine how Aviendha could fit into either of those, although I suppose she could help Rand out with Turak (though I hope this isn’t the case — it would kind of undermine the whole point of that fight, which is Rand actually proving he is worthy to carry a heron-marked blade by defeating another blademaster in single combat).

Now on the flip side of all this, it’s also possible that Judkins is referring to the climactic fight scene that happens in the Stone of Tear at the end of The Dragon Reborn. Aviendha is present for that one, which is more of a chaotic melee involving multiple main characters and villains. If the show is combining elements from books 2 and 3, it’s possible that it could shift the climactic battle in the Stone of Tear over to Falme, and handle some of those events there, such as Rand becoming widely recognized as the Dragon Reborn, defeating a certain recurring villain, and connecting with the Aiel.

Either way, we know that Aviendha will be taking part in the battle at Falme, which likely foreshadows a pretty large deviation from the source material.

The Wheel of Time season 2 will have more wolf scenes for Perrin

The Q&A also uncovered some interesting info about Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford). Perrin is a Wolfbrother in the books, meaning that he can communicate with wolves and has a special bond with them. The show did include this, but scaled it way back. Part of that may just have been the logistics of filming with actual animals; Game of Thrones faced similar challenges with its direwolves in early seasons.

Nonetheless, Rutherford pointed out one particular wolf scene, where one of the wolves came up to him and licked a wound on his leg in order to help it heal, as one of his favorite moments working on season 1. “I didn’t know how we were gonna film it,” Rutherford said. “The dog handlers are incredible. They put a little bit of meat, sort of like a pâté paste on the wound, and it hit its marks, it managed to look up to the camera. It was quite amazing, really. You never really know, filming with real animals how it’s gonna go.”

"It’s really, really exciting, especially moving forward into season 2 to have like real animals to work with. And yeah, they were like so professional. Way, way, way more professional than me."

It’s exciting to hear Rutherford mention shooting more scenes with the wolves in season 2. Season 2 will include Elyas Machera, Perrin’s mentor in the ways of wolfing from The Eye of the World, so it makes sense that wolves will play a bigger role.

The Wheel of Time season 2 is currently in production. Season 1 is available to stream now on Prime Video.

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