The Wheel of Time “is not chasing Game of Thrones”

It’s been just over a year since The Wheel of Time finished its first season on Amazon Prime Video, and the wait to see what happens next to Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike), Rand al’Thor (Josha Stadowski) and the rest has been long. Season 2 wrapped filming back in May; since then the show has been in post-production, which is no small process considering how many special effects are in the series.

We know The Wheel of Time season 2 is coming out at some point in 2023, but we don’t know when. However, in a new interview with The Wheel of Time fansite Dragonmount.com, showrunner Rafe Judkins did reveal some new details.

The Wheel of Time season 2 is likely not coming until mid-to-late 2023

After interviewers Kathy Campbell and Thom DeSimone kicked things off with a fun question about Judkins’ favorite dinosaur (it’s Pachycephalosaurus), they get into the nitty-gritty about his work on The Wheel of Time. To start, Judkins set the record straight on a recent report which claimed the show would be premiering in early 2023.

“There’s some truth to it in that I do believe season 2 will be premiering in 2023,” Judkins laughed. “There’s still a lot of work that we’ve got to do on the show in post, VFX, all of that…so I would not expect it in early 2023, but you can expect it in 2023.”

Judkins also revealed that he and the rest of the writers were planning The Wheel of Time season 3, so it sounds like work is proceeding steadily on the series.

How The Wheel of Time season 2 will change the books

The Wheel of Time season 1 contained quite a few changes from the novel on which it’s based, The Eye of the World, and season 2 promises to mix things up even more. We know for sure at this point that season 2 will combine books 2 and 3 of the saga, The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn. According to Judkins, this change was fully supported by Brandon Sanderson, the author who finished The Wheel of Time books after creator Robert Jordan passed away in 2007.

"When I first talked to Brandon Sanderson about the show and my worries about the overall adaptation, I was like ‘you know one thing I’m thinking about is that books 2 and 3 both have the same narrative arc essentially of landing with Rand in a confrontation from a man who we’ll come to realize is [the Forsaken] Ishamael…you can’t do that in television two seasons in a row, because that doesn’t work in that context.’ And he said the same thing, of like ‘no you have to combine those two.’ Even though there’s these incredible stories that are in both of those books, if you told them sequentially like that it would sort of break it down, which was his same instinct as well."

Judkins compared the result to tossing up a bunch of narrative juggling balls in the air; by the end of season 2, we’ll start to see how those balls land heading into season 3, which will adapt the beloved fourth book of the saga, The Shadow Rising.

The Wheel of Time will not be out by “early 2023”

Judkins also recalled the days before Amazon had greenlit The Wheel of Time, when he was getting offered various huge projects as networks scrambled to find their own Game of Thrones-sized fantasy hit:

"What I felt when I was reading and looking at a lot of them was that they were chasing something…and my pitch was that Wheel of Time is chasing nothing. Wheel of Time is its own entity, and that it is what other things have been chasing for a long time.We’ll always lean into the pieces of it that feel fresher today, we have to, like that’s just part of the adaptation that we’re doing and that won’t change. But that Wheel of Time itself is not chasing Game of Thrones, it is not chasing Lord of the Rings, it is something that exists on its own and other things will chase it someday and are now even."

Balancing The Wheel of Time and God of War

Judkins also shed some light on his latest headline-making gig: he’ll be serving as showrunner on a God of War series, based on the enormously popular PlayStation video game franchise.

That’s another huge project, and fans wonder how Judkins will balance the two. “Yes, well it’s funny for me…I mean [God of War] is something I’ve been working on for a long time with [screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby], so the announcement just came out but it’s something that we’ve known about and been involved with for a while…it’s really exciting. I love the games. I love working with those two guys. They’re great, really smart…I love The Expanse, I’m sure many others are fans as well. Iron Man, also a good film, don’t know if you’ve seen it.”

"So it’s great…it’s just a really fun project to work on. And I’ve always worked on other stuff while I’m working on Wheel, so it’ll never affect like my commitment to Wheel, obviously. But it’s something that I’m really happy to be working on because I really love it. And it’s also really different than Wheel in a lot of ways, so it’s a good balance to do between the two."

The Wheel of Time season 2 is due out sometime in 2023 — though not early 2023. Season 1 is available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels