Sony and Amazon have cancelled The Wheel of Time, their ongoing TV adaptation of Robert Jordan's epic fantasy book series. It's a bummer for fans of the series, fans of fantasy, and fans of good TV in general. The show was really hitting its stride in its third and most recent season, so to see the plug pulled on it at this point feels like salt in the wound.
Why did Sony and Amazon cancel the show? Most likely, it wasn't meeting their viewership metrics. I don't know what those metrics are, but I'm prepared to call them stupid metrics. I look at The Wheel of Time as a long-term investment; the book series is famously lengthy, and whoever tells the whole story will have a massive library of episodes it will be difficult for other studios to equal. They could syndicate the episodes, they could sell them on home video, they could release new versions of the books...and by the time the show is done, it will have paid for itself many times over.
Or that's my rose-colored thesis, anyway. Might any other streaming service have the good sense to swoop in and save the show from an early death? We don't know, but let's run down the usual suspects just in case any are reading this and need inspiration:
- Netflix: Netflix is the behemoth streaming service of the moment, the biggest and first kid on the block. They have deep pockets, enough to finance a show like The Wheel of Time if they wanted to. And if they want to, I'm on board. Somehow I don't think they will, though. They already have a high fantasy TV series in The Witcher, and enough backlog to keep them busy for years.
- HBO: HBO doesn't have the bottomless pockets of Netflix, and they're generally a little choosier about what shows they greenlight. They already have a high fantasy show in House of the Dragon, plus a spinoff coming in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I don't think they would bring on another in The Wheel of Time.
- Apple TV+: They feel like the best bet to rescue The Wheel of Time. Not only does Apple have bottomless pockets, the people running the streaming service clearly have an interest in genre fare, producing shows like For All Mankind, Severance, Silo, Foundation and Murderbot. They don't have a high fantasy epic as part of their catalog yet, so The Wheel of Time could fit right in.
There are other streaming services out there, like Paramount+ and Peacock, but I don't think they have the combination of cash and vision to see something like The Wheel of Time through to the end. I'm not sure anybody does, but if anyone is going to step up to the plate, I think it'll be Apple TV+.
Canceled shows have been brought back before. The cult favorite sci-fi Firefly was cancelled way back in 2002 and came back as a movie in 2002. Arrested Development went off the air in 2006, and then was brought back for two additional seasons starting on Netflix in 2013. SyFy canceled the sci-fi drama The Expanse in 2018, and Amazon, of all companies, gave it three more seasons, starting in 2019.
This kind of thing does happen. I don't know if The Wheel of Time will follow in their footsteps, but I hope it is, and I hope it's soon.
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