The hunt to find the stars of Prime Video's Fourth Wing came to an end after years of speculation. Deadline revealed the upcoming fantasy series had found its Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson.
According to the report, Esther McGregor will star as Violet in Fourth Wing, Prime Video's new fantasy series based on The Empyrean book series by Rebecca Yarros. Emilio Sakraya will star opposite McGregor as Xaden Riorson.
This is a super exciting reveal for Fourth Wing fans. It's literally one of the big things or announcements that we were waiting for because it means production is right around the corner! Yet, if you look around online, it doesn't really feel like cause for a celebration, and that's quite depressing.
While I saw many, many fans were understandably freaking out and praising Prime Video for these casting decisions, I noticed even more Fourth Wing fans were not exactly thrilled with McGregor and Sakraya's casting as Violet and Xaden. I'm not going to share the comments I've read. I went down the rabbit hole on Instagram and Twitter, and it's disappointing that the narrative is being hijacked.
I want to implore all fans to withhold judgement of McGregor and Sakraya until we actually get to see the series come to life. I don't think that's too much to ask.
Some of the hesitation with these castings makes sense. With all adaptations, fans have a specific idea of what a character looks like in their head based on a description over many, many pages. I have a feeling that's what is happening here. Some fans can't imagine McGregor or Sakraya actually looking like their version of Violet and Xaden from their heads.
Still, it's not cool to react so negatively. We've seen so many TV and movie stars of book adaptations get unfairly criticized and even harassed over the years because of stuff like this. Let's not let that happen here.
McGregor and Sakraya are incredible performers who deserve to be judged on their performance as Violet and Xaden
While I'm not here to tell anyone how to feel or think, it's quite unfair, to say the absolute least, to criticize a person and how they look because of an idea that you have in your head.
Book characters are not real people. It takes the work of, sometimes, dozens of artists to bring these characters to life on TV and film, from the performers to the stunt coordinators and choreographers to the hair and makeup stylists to the costume designers and beyond. It's so much more than just how they look.
McGregor and Sakraya deserve a chance to bring Violet and Xaden to life, and then, fans can criticize their performances and the casting team based on what we actually get to see in the series. That's how this should work.
I'm not going to lie; I thought Prime Video might pick some more well-known actors to star in the series. I'm familiar with McGregor from We Were Liars and Babygirl. I saw Sakraya from Warrior Nun a few years ago. They don't have some of the experience that some of the rumored cast had.
That even doesn't matter, though. These are incredibly talented actors! Before you get mad about their new roles, I would suggest actually watching their shows and movies. Prime Video is making a sound investment. These two are going to be huge stars. Some Fourth Wing fans just don't know it yet.
Now, McGregor and Sakraya have an incredible opportunity to lead a series that will likely be one of the biggest shows of the year whenever it premieres. This is probably the biggest fantasy TV series in development since House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power. It might be even more popular than both of those shows.
Let's give McGregor and Sakraya the chance to deliver some incredible performances and bring Violet and Xaden to life in Fourth Wing. It's only fair to trust the process.
From here, I expect we'll be learning a lot more about the other cast members chosen to play the other characters in the series. Then, we'll start to learn more about the filming timeline. Once we have that, we can start to make some release predictions. Unfortunately, based on schedules, we're probably looking at a 2028 premiere for the Fourth Wing TV series, but that's all down-the-line stuff. Let's just be happy we have a major Fourth Wing update to celebrate.
We'll share more updates about the Fourth Wing TV series as we find out. Yarros also recently shared some updates about Book 4, too!
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