Rebecca Yarros broke her silence about the Fourth Wing TV casting news in the comments of an Instagram post, eagle-eyed fans noticed.
After a fan apologized to Yarros in the comments of a post about Yarros' upcoming book, Peculiar Stars, about all the hate she was getting, Yarros set the record straight about her involvement in Fourth Wing TV decisions.
"Casting decisions on FW [Fourth Wing] isn't anything I control so I'm not sure why anyone would be angry with me...," Yarros replied. She finished the message with the shrug emoji.
It appears the comments have now been deleted.
It's been an interesting couple of weeks for Fourth Wing fans. A few weeks after Threshing Day, Yarros' new novella, was released on Sept. 29, 2026, it was reported that the Fourth Wing TV series had cast Esther McGregor and Emilio Sakraya as Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson. Then, some fans got really wild and quite negative for a few days on social media. That's when Yarros replied to the Instagram comment. That's not the end of the story, though!
Yarros praises Violet and Xaden casting choices
On Wednesday, Oct. 21, Prime Video confirmed that McGregor and Sakraya have been cast as Violet and Xaden on social media. Yarros also released a statement praising the casting decisions, according to Variety.
"I’m so grateful to our producing and casting team for conducting a thorough, worldwide search to find Violet and Xaden,” Yarros said in the statement. “It will be incredibly exciting to see these talented actors, Esther and Emilio, bring our beloved characters to life on screen.”
If you're keeping track at home, Yarros, first, reminded fans that she's not in charge of casting for the Fourth Wing TV series. Then, she shared the statement praising the creative team for finding McGregor and Sakraya to play the series' leads.
This reaction from fans is all too common. I can't imagine that Yarros, or any author or writer for that matter, appreciates pushback or even harassment from "fans" about things that are out of their control. No one deserves to have to read the comments that authors like Yarros frequently have to read. These are real people with real lives.
Overall, Yarros' reply is quite a fair representation of the situation. Anyone who understands how these TV or film adaptations work or just knows how the world works in general should know that there are other stakeholders involved in these decisions. Every deal is different, and the casting team might take Yarros' opinion into account when picking actors, but that's not her job.
With all due respect, that's quite outside her lane and expertise, as well. There are casting directors who work very hard and use their talent to pick the right actors for these roles. Of course, they don't get it right every time, but again, I don't understand why anyone would take that directly to Yarros. It's mind-boggling at times what happens on social media with these fandoms.
Anyway, the good news is that we know who will be playing Violet and Xaden in the Fourth Wing TV series, and Yarros approves! We also just learned that a few Threshing Day tour events will be rescheduled, so it's possible that we'll hear Yarros talk about the casting announcement, or other Fourth Wing TV news, when she heads to Los Angeles and Seattle for those events. Those dates have not been announced yet.
We'll share more updates about the Fourth Wing TV series, those Threshing Day tour dates, and of course, Book 4 of The Empyrean series as we find out. Stay tuned!
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