The Wheel of Time has wrapped up its second season on Amazon Prime Video in fairly spectacular fashion, and now all eyes are looking ahead to season 3, which is already in production. The next season is set to adapt The Shadow Rising, the fourth of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books and one of the most beloved among fans.
Why is The Shadow Rising so popular? We’ll tell you, but it will involve SPOILERS. So you’d best look away if you’d rather go in fresh.
The Wheel of Time will return to the Two Rivers in season 3
The Shadow Rising once again splits up our heroes. Rand, Mat, Moiraine and Egwene go off on an adventure; Nynaeve and Elayne continue the partnership we saw them form in season 2; and Perrin kind of has a storyline all to himself, supported by characters like the Aes Sedai Alanna (Priyanka Bose) and the Aiel spear maidens Bain (Ragga Ragnars) and Chiad (Maja Simonsen).
In The Shadow Rising, Perrin returns to the Two Rivers, the bucolic fantasy backwater where he, Rand, Mat, Nynaeve and Egwene were all living in the first season before Moiraine came and whisked them away on a life-changing journey. It turns out the Two Rivers is under assault by both Trollocs and the Children of the Light, those white-clad military types Perrin clashes with in season 1; the Children also attacked the city of Falme in the season 2 finale.
Technically, the Children of the Light, aka the Whitecloaks, are in the Two Rivers to protect people from the Trollocs, but the Whitecloaks can be just as bad in their own way. Perrin heads off to his old home town to try and rally the people to fight for themselves and drive off both groups of interlopers. This gives us a chance to catch up with characters we haven’t seen much of since the series premiere, like Rand’s father Tam al’Thor, played by Game of Thrones veteran Michael McElhatton.
We’ll also reunite with Egwene’s mother Marin al’Vere, who was played by Lolita Chakrabarti in season 1. However, WoT Series reports that the role has been recast with actor Rina Mahoney, known for her roles in TV shows like Wednesday and Hollyoaks. According to Chakrabarti’s publicist, she could not return to The Wheel of Time “due to a clash of timings of her projects in the West End and on Broadway as a playwright.”
Delighted to confirm actor Rina Mahoney to our next Fizzy Sherbet event @HackneyAttic on 14 June - welcome! pic.twitter.com/Qi1IJzj4TH
— FizzySherbetPlays (@FizzySherbetFun) June 8, 2017
The Tuatha’an people will return in The Wheel of Time season 3
It’s a shame that Chakrabarti won’t return as Egwene’s mom, but the fact that Marin al’Vere will show up at all definitely indicates that we’re returning to the Two Rivers in The Wheel of Time season 3, and likely spending more time there than we did in season 1. We’ve also seen that The Wheel of Time has rebuilt the Two Rivers set last seen in the series premiere; recall that it was burned down in a Trolloc attack.
And the evidence keeps on coming. WoT Series also reports that actors Maria Doyle Kennedy, Narinder Samra and Daryl McCormack will all return in The Wheel of Time season 3. We last saw this trio in season 1, where they played a family of Tuatha’an wanderers: McCormack played the rebellious Aram while Kennedy and Samra played his parents, IIa and Raen.
The Tuatha’an are a nomadic people committed to a non-violent way of life, but as we saw in season 1, Aram has doubts about whether that’s the right way to go about things; recall that Perrin and Egwene traveled with the family for a while and fought the Whitecloaks together. In The Shadow Rising, Aram has rejected his family’s pacifism and teams up with Perrin to fight the Trollocs. Expect some family drama.
Excitement is high to see The Shadow Rising adapted. If the team pulls it off, and all signs indicate that they’re giving it their all, season 3 could cement The Wheel of Time as the big-budget fantasy show to beat.
At one point, we would have told you that we can expect to see The Wheel of Time season 3 premiere sometime in 2024, but with Hollywood still slowed down by the actors strike, it’s unclear what will happen. As of this writing, The Wheel of Time is reportedly still filming, since it’s filmed mostly overseas where the laws allow them to keep shooting even through a strike. Stay tuned.
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