The third season of The Wheel of Time premieres next week, and it premieres hard. At least for a while, Prime Video made the first 11 minutes available to watch online, and they are lit. There is battle in the White Tower of the Aes Sedai! And that's just the first scene.
“Just the opener, almost the cold open of episode one is an epic bloodthirsty, vicious battle where powerful women are kind of slaying each other,” star Rosamund Pike told news.com.au. “I mean, it’s kind of like a season finale, and we haven’t even got 15 minutes into the show. That was a surprise … and we’ve got layers upon layers of political intrigue and villains who … they have enemies. So I think we’re starting to know the lay of the land. We can really get into all the adversarial nitty-gritty of this world.”
It feels to me like there's more hype around this upcoming season of The Wheel of Time; the second season was an improvement on the first, and if the momentum keeps going, the show could take its place atop the epic fantasy pile. With the show adapting the events of The Shadow Rising, one of the most beloved books in Robert Jordan's book series, this could be the year the show truly breaks out.
And Rosamund Pike's Moiraine will be at the center of it, as will her charge: Rand al'Thor, the reincarnated messiah also known as the Dragon Reborn. Moiraine has guided Rand through the first couple of seasons, but in season 3, he'll start pushing to do more on his own. “When your mentee turns around and says, ‘I don’t need you anymore,’ it’s on one level, hurtful, but it’s also the sign that they’re showing the mettle they need to become the person they’re meant to become,” she told Reactor. “So Moiraine is frustrated because while Rand is obstructing what she knows needs to be done, he’s showing that he’s thinking for himself. He’s thinking as the Dragon Reborn, finally. But there’s a difference in opinion on how to strategize the next steps.”
“She has to accept that is a battle of submission and control for her,” Pike elaborated to TV Insider. “In order to continue to guide him, she has to relinquish some of her control. Paradoxically, she has to be able to let him take the lead.”
How The Wheel of Time star Josha Stradowski worked on Rand's channeling
Josha Stradowski, who plays Rand, weighed in as well. “I think Rand still needs Moiraine as a guide, absolutely,” he said. “But I think for Rand, it’s more that he wants to be seen by and listened to as well. There are lots of people who walk into the room and tell Rand what to do, or try and to push him into something… no one really asks him, ‘What do you think is a good idea where we should go?’”
It also sounds like Stradowski is more active behind the scenes, weighing in with opinions on Rand should approach channeling, which is basically this story's version of magic. “I wanted the channeling for Rand to be more aligned, and also that it would be more of a flow, more natural, because he is the most powerful channeler,” he said. “He just needs to get out of his own way and let the power flow through him, so that the force is not outside of him, but he is the force.”
"There’s a moment where Rand does channel, and in the script, it was simply, ‘He channels, and something happens,’ and it’s very quick. I wanted to hold on to the Power, so it has—not only the audience but also the people around Rand—understanding what that channeling actually means. We talk a lot about it, but we don’t really feel it, and we don’t really see it in Rand’s eyes, because it always happens in an accident."
Devotees of The Wheel of Time know that it's dangerous for Rand to channel. In this world, the male half of the One Power has been tainted, and any men who channel eventually go mad. That's a problem when you're the Dragon Reborn, who as Stradowski says is the most powerful channeler in the world. Think of the damage he could do.
But desperate times call for desperate measures. There was a time when Rand would have liked nothing more than to live a quiet life and never have to channel again, but with the Last Battle against the Dark One looming and his identity as the Dragon Reborn revealed, he decides to step up instead. “It has changed him,” Stradowski told TV Insider. “It’s time for Rand to stand up for who he is and he’s way more active and demanding. And what I was really pushing for with [showrunner Rafe Judkins]…we know the prophecies, but prophecies aside, why is Rand the Dragon reborn?”
Everyone will find out soon enough. The Wheel of Time season 3 premieres on Prime Video on Thursday, March 13.
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