Time to milk it, everyone! Earlier this year, Amazon Prime Video aired the second season of The Wheel of Time, based on the beloved fantasy books by Robert Jordan (and finished by Brandon Sanderson). It must have been a pretty big hit, because afterwards we heard that there was an animated spinoff movie in the works called The White Tower, about a young girl who trains to become an Aes Sedai sorceress. But that was nothing compared to this latest news: according to Deadline, we’re getting a live-action trilogy of Wheel of Time movies set thousands of years before the main story, during the Age of Legends!
The Age of Legends was the period when the Dark One first emerged to threaten humanity. The Forsaken channelers we meet on the main show — people like Ishamael and Lanfear — were born during this time before being locked away and awakened thousands of years later. You know how everyone calls Rand al’Thor the Dragon Reborn? Well, during this time we meet the original Dragon, Lews Therin, who we’ve seen in a couple of flashbacks as played by Alexander Karim:
We don’t know whether actors like Karim would return for these movies, although if the point it to make them of a piece with the show, you’d figure he would. The first movie, simply titled The Age of Legends, will be directed by Kari Skogland, known for directing episodes of TV shows like The Walking Dead, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It will be written by Zack Stentz, who wrote movies like Thor and X-Men: First Class. Stentz is also the writer behind The White Tower animated movie.
The Age of Legends is being produced by, among others, Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon, who also produce The Wheel of Time TV show. So there’s plenty of overlap, although I’m not 100% clear on whether all of this is planned and approved by Amazon, or if the rights to The Wheel of Time are spread out a bit, meaning that the movies don’t necessarily have to be consistent with the TV show.
The Wheel of Time has a new season of TV and four movies in development
What is clear is that we’re getting a lot of Wheel of Time stuff. Whenever something like this happens, I always worry. Is the series getting overexposed? Is Amazon spreading its attention too thin? Is it trying to turn The Wheel of Time into a Marvel Cinematic Universe-like mega franchise when it should just be adapting the story it has in front of it?
The third season of The Wheel of Time TV show is in the works and (probably) won’t be out until 2025. We don’t have release dates for any of the movies yet. “Directing The Age of Legends is a remarkable opportunity to bring a beloved universe to life and delve into the rich lore that has long-captivated the hearts of millions of book readers around the world,” said Skogland. “My vision is to honor the worldbuilding of Jordan’s masterwork, while peeling back the layers of legend and myth to reveal the flesh-and-blood characters underneath—flawed heroes and villains alike— ordinary people forced to make extraordinary choices as their world unravels.”
Ready or not, here comes everything.
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