Josha Stradowski "very eager" for Rand to train with Lan in The Wheel of Time season 3

The second season of The Wheel of Time ended with Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski) and company reunited in the city of Falme, where they took on the Forsaken sorcerer Ishamael...and won! It was a nice climax, especially since the characters had spend much of the season apart.

"[I]t was very nice to see all the characters back together again at the end of Season 2," Stradowski told Decider. "There wasn’t a lot of togetherness in that whole season. And, you know, we were shooting the whole week on that tower in the middle of the desert in Morocco. A lot of the actors didn’t see each other for a very, very long time. It was a good time and it was also nice to see all those characters back together again on the screen."

Things go differently in The Wheel of Time books, where Rand fights Ishamael solo. Why did the show change things to make it more of a team effort? "I think what I remember when I read the first book and the second book, those finales were very, very, very big," Stradowski said. "I think this is a very good question for [Wheel of Timeshowrunner] Rafe [Judkins], but I also thought we also needed to like build it up. You know, because there’s also a big skill gap. I think for Rand’s arc in Season 2, it made sense for me that Rand needs his friends to do this. And that is a big realization, a big lesson for him for Season 2 and something that he needs to face whatever he has to face in Season 3."

The final fight wasn't the only big moment from the Falme fight that the show changed. There's also the bit where Rand confronts the Seanchan leader Turak. In the books, he and Rand have an epic sword fight that Rand wins. The show opted for more of an Indiana Jones-type moment where Turak starts to set up a sword fight, only for Rand to blast him and his followers with the One Power and get on with his day.

"I love the sword-fighting moments in the books," Stradowski said about that moment. "I’m very eager for that: those moments between Rand and Lan. But I also felt like, you know, Rand was practicing. He learned a couple of things with the sword, but I don’t think he was quite there yet. So I understand that it was quite a big skill gap for that."

Stradowski once again brings up the skill gap, which I think is valid. In the books, there's a sense that Rand can do just about anything, which is fair; he is the Dragon Reborn, after all. But there's also a whiff of the Mary Sue trope in how this green boy can suddenly go toe-to-toe with a practiced blade master after only a bit of training with Lan. And we haven't even seen that training onscreen yet, so he has even less experience in the show. Making it look like Rand can do too much too soon could have come across as unbelievable.

Rhuidean will "surprise fans" in The Wheel of Time season 3

By the sound of it, Rand will log some legit training with Lan (Daniel Henney) in season 3, which will surely please fans who want to see the warder teach Rand sword forms with names like cat-walks-across-the-courtyard and duck-cheats-on-its-taxes. I predict many memes.

Season 3 will also bring developments in Rand's love life. Season 2 ended with him meeting Elayne Trakand, daughter-heir of Andor, and it seemed like the world stopped when he laid eyes on her. "I think in the books, there are all these moments where Rand seems completely blown away by the beauty of these women. Selene, for example. And I think this was one of those typical Rand moments," Stradowski said.

Season 3 will be based on the book The Shadow Rising, which sees several of our heroes travel to the city of Rhuidean, a sacred place to the Aiel people. "I think it will surprise fans," Stradowski said of this important location. "We’re going to South Africa for two months. I’ve seen some of the landscapes where we’re going to shoot and it’s pretty incredible. I think it’s season two, we went to Morocco for two months, but I think South Africa is something else."

Most likely, we'll be watching The Wheel of Time season 3 on Amazon Prime Video sometime in 2025.

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