While the Mistborn movie and Stormlight Archive show based on Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books are still a long ways off, it's never too early for fans to start dreaming about who should play beloved characters like Vin, Kelsier, Kaladin Stormblessed, Shallan Davar, and Dalinar Kholin. Readers have spent countless hours with these figures and more from Sanderson's works, so to say there's an immense amount of anticipation to see what they'll look like in Apple's adaptations would be a wild understatement.
Sanderson made many headlines over the past year for the fact that he has retained an unusual amount of creative control for the Cosmere adaptations. He's penning the script for Mistborn and will serve as a co-showrunner on The Stormlight Archive. With that in mind, it makes sense to wonder how much he'll be involved in casting his characters as well.
That was a question that Collider's Maggie Lovitt had for Sanderson during an excellent interview conducted last month at the Fan X convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. His answer might be a bit surprising. Not only does Sanderson not want to have the final call on castings for the Cosmere, this question led him to heap praise on the casting for other fantasy adaptions as well — namely, The Wheel of Time, Prime Video's adaptation of Robert Jordan's iconic book series which was unceremoniously canceled after its third season.
"So, what I've told them is I want to be there," Sanderson said. "But my experience with some of the things that I've had happen in Hollywood before is the casting directors are really good. I've had, you know, some of my issues with some of the epic fantasy things that have come out, but I've never had a problem with the casting."
"In fact, like The Wheel of Time show, which I was just very tangentially involved in, the casting was amazing," he added. "And so, I believe in letting people who are really good at their jobs do their jobs. But I want to be there in the room and offer my opinion. And so that's what I've told them."
Brandon Sanderson had issues with The Wheel of Time show, but its casting was not one of them
Sanderson has at times had some harsh opinions about Prime Video's Wheel of Time adaptation. As the author who wrote the final three books in the series after Robert Jordan's death in 2007, Sanderson had a emotional large stake in the success of the show — as well as a literal business one, since he served as a consulting producer. He did not always agree with the changes it made from Jordan's source material, to the point where when it was canceled, he simultaneously commiserated with the show's fans who "deserved better than a cancelation after the best season" while also stating he wouldn't "miss being largely ignored" by the powers behind the production, who he claimed "wanted my name on it for legitimacy, but not to involve me in any meaningful way."
Suffice to say this has made Sanderson's takes on The Wheel of Time somewhat divisive in the fandom. But in this instance, his praise is wholehearted and consistent. I've been reporting on The Wheel of Time television show ever since it was first announced, and I've never once heard Sanderson bad mouth a single actor on the show. He's repeatedly praised actors like Rosamund Pike as Moiraine; even as recently as a September 2026 interview with IGN where he reflected on the "tragedy" of the show's cancelation, he reiterated that he didn't know "if it would ever be possible to get a better Moiraine than Rosamund."
The Wheel of Time's cast was one of its strongest elements. From Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor and the rest of his friends from the Two Rivers, to Natasha O'Keefe's Lanfear and her deliciously villainous Forsaken peers, to the Aes Sedai of the White Tower and beyond, the casting on The Wheel of Time never dropped the ball. Many of the actors it hired brought new dimensions to the characters they inhabited, making them even more immediately interesting than they were in Jordan's books. I'm still sad we won't see them again in season 4 and beyond.
Should you wish to experience their work again however, you can always see the incredible cast for The Wheel of Time once more by rewatching all three seasons of the television show. They're available on Prime Video.
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