The Wheel of Time season 3 begins filming in South Africa, but there's one notable actor missing

The Wheel of Time resumed filming in South Africa earlier this week, which means we're one step closer to watching its highly-anticipated third season. According to a report from reliable Wheel of Time news site WoTseries, this period of filming is tentatively planned to run for about 2 months. That's in addition to the long stretch of filming in the Czech Republic which wrapped late last year.

Based on the beloved books by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, The Wheel of Time is a sprawling fantasy series with numerous characters, locales and cultures. Fantasy worlds don't really get much bigger than this. The show's third season is primarily set to adapt The Shadow Rising, the fourth book in the series, and will see several of our main characters undertake an arduous journey into the Aiel Waste, where Aviendha's (Ayoola Smart) people, the Aiel, hail from. This is a crucial storyline in the books, and we know that it's coming in the television show thanks to comments from showrunner Rafe Judkins, who revealed at last year's New York Comic-Con that the key Aiel location of Rhuidean will appear in season 3.

The WoTseries report has a bunch of interesting tidbits. The Wheel of Time films in two-episode "blocks," with different directors assigned to each. For season 3, either directors or key crew members who work closely with certain directors from each block have been spotted in South Africa, meaning the material being filmed there could theoretically span the entirety of the season. WoTseries believes they may be filming material from as early as Episode 2, and that scenes relevant to both the Aiel Waste and Tanchico may be on the docket.

In general, there's a lot of interesting stuff in WoTseries' report, and if you enjoy The Wheel of Time I highly encourage you to give it a read. But there was one bit of information in particular that made my mind start racing at the possibilities. We're going to discuss it below, but first a spoiler warning, since we'll be getting into some details from The Shadow Rising...and which character may end up on a very different path than they did in the book.

Where in the world is Mat Cauthon in The Wheel of Time season 3?

In addition to reporting about directors and locations, another bit of intriguing information contained in the WoTseries report discusses which actors have been confirmed to be heading to South Africa for filming. They list Rosamund Pike (Moiraine), Daniel Henney (Lan), Madeleine Madden (Egwene) and Ayoola Smart (Aviendha) as cast members who they have solid evidence will take part in the production there. They also believe Josha Stradowski will be there too, since Rand al'Thor is at the center of the Aiel Waste plotline. Based on some of the comments Stradowski made in our exclusive interview with him late last year, I'm inclined to agree that he'll almost certainly turn up in South Africa as well.

But one actor who is very notably absent from that list is Dónal Finn, who plays Mat Cauthon. In the books, Mat accompanies Rand, Moiraine, Land and Egwene out into the Waste. He undergoes a very transformative experience there at Rhuidean, which the show already foreshadowed during season 2. So if Mat isn't going to be in South Africa for filming, does that mean the show is altering his plotline in a huge way?

Maybe, maybe not. A leak in early January claimed that Finn would be filming scenes in Tanchico, a city he never visits in the novel. We still don't know exactly why Mat would be in Tanchico, but it's possible some of his material from early in The Shadow Rising, or even the third book, The Dragon Reborn, will end up happening there. Or the show may make up a completely new plotline for him. Given the way it handled Mat's story in season 2, I wouldn't be surprised if the show did some combination of the two.

That isn't to say Mat will never go to the Aiel Waste in season 3, though. In The Shadow Rising, Mat encounters two races of mysterious beings by traveling through twisted redstone doorway ter'angreals: the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn. He finds the doorway which leads to the Aelfinn at the Stone of Tear, before embarking on the journey out into the Aiel Waste. Later, he encounters the Eelfinn through a doorway in Rhuidean, which leads into a major shift for his character arc.

To my eye, it seems like The Wheel of Time has options for how to handle Mat's story. Since the Stone of Tear hasn't fallen in the show, it's possible he'll find the doorway which introduces him to the Aelfinn in Tanchico. He could always head out to the Aiel Waste after that in a later episode, which could account for him not being in South Africa for filming yet. Or perhaps the show could even condense the Finns, so that Mat goes into a doorway in Tanchico, meets both the Eelfinn and Aelfinn, and is then booted out the other doorway into Rhuidean where he's reunited with Rand.

As I said, options. But no matter how you slice it, it means that some changes from the books are on the horizon for Mat Cauthon's storyline in The Wheel of Time season 3. After how good The Wheel of Time season 2 was, I'm more excited to see how it all works out than nervous.

Filming continues on The Wheel of Time season 3. With any luck, we'll be watching it sometime in 2025.

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