The campaign to save The Wheel of Time continues, because just like the folk of the idyllic Two Rivers, the fans are too stubborn to give up. Following last month's shocking cancellation of Amazon's fantasy series The Wheel of Time, fans have been mobilizing hard to save the show. The #SaveWOT campaign reached two more huge milestones over the weekend: its petition to save the show passed 150,000 signatures, and its fundraiser to support buying billboards in major cities around the world smashed all its stretch goals by pulling in more than $32,000.
That fundraiser began with a modest goal of $7,000, which it handily crushed in under 24 hours. It has now met all its stretch goals, meaning the organizers have enough money to buy billboards in places like New York City, Los Angeles, and London as well as a sky banner. Rand al'Thor may not have fought Ba'alzamon in the sky in the show's second season like in the books, but the fans will fight Jeff Bezos there!
And all this is in addition to things like this #SaveWoT billboard that popped up in Times Square over the weekend, which was supported by a separate group of Brazilian fans. The Wheel of Time is a show with a global cast and reach, and the effort to save it is coming from many fronts.
The Wheel of Time has now surpassed The Expanse campaign's petition
This means that as of this writing, the petition to save The Wheel of Time has officially garnered more signatures than the petition at the heart of the Save The Expanse campaign, which topped out at 138,472. Following three seasons on SyFy, The Expanse was cancelled in 2018, only for fans to rally so hard around it that they convinced Amazon head Jeff Bezos to pick it up. It ran for three more seasons on Prime Video before its end in 2022.
Obviously, there was a lot more going on with The Expanse campaign than just the petition. Fans held social media days where they targeted specific streamers with posts to try and get their attention, wrote letters, and paid to have a plane flown by Amazon headquarters with a banner reading "#SaveTheExpanse". And of course, it has since come out that Jeff Bezos is a fan of the sci-fi story by James S.A. Corey, which no doubt helped matters.
Petition numbers alone won't make the difference; just look at Shadow & Bone, which was cancelled by Netflix after two seasons and got 208,794 signatures for its fan petition to find the show a new home. That's more than The Expanse and The Wheel of Time (as of this writing), yet it wasn't enough to save the show.
Fortunately, The Wheel of Time campaign seems to be just as organized as the one which tried to revive The Expanse, and they're taking notes about what worked for that other campaign and how to apply those lessons to their own efforts. It is exceedingly rare for a fan campaign to actually get a show saved, but in this case, I'm still holding out hope.
And I'm not the only one. The Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins shared a heartfelt message about the show last week, admitting that show being saved "does not happen often," but that he's holding out hope for the series, "because this book series and these fans deserve to see the story finished."
Star Shohreh Aghdashloo, who played the villainous Aes Sedai sorceress Elaida in season 3, also called people to action: "Though the Wheel may pause, the story ofThe Wheel of Timemust be told," she wrote on Twitter/X. "Elaida has not played her last card, and with the power of our incredible fans, we'll weave this tale back to life." Coincidentally, Aghdashloo also appeared in all six seasons of The Expanse, so she's been through this before. Perhaps she'll prove to be a good luck charm for shows cancelled prematurely and help bring The Wheel of Time back from the brink as well?
Time will tell. For now, if you want to get involved in the campaign to save The Wheel of Time, head over to SaveWoT.com.
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