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Amazon finally gets the fantasy wheel rolling with first look at epic 'Wheel of Time' series
Amazon may just have the next Game of Thrones on its hands with an epic TV translation of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time novels — of which there are 15, so there's plenty of material to mine. Following the announcement of a premiere window and the release of a teaser poster during Comic-Con@Home last month, Prime Video has released four high-res production stills from the show.
The images provide us with our first good look at Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day, Gone Girl) in the main role of Moiraine, a magic-user who belongs to an order of peacekeeping female mystics known as the Aes Sedai. In fact, a good portion of cyclical The Wheel of Time mythos subverts fantasy-based gender expectations with its largest kingdom based on a matriarchal hierarchy.
One might say the shoe is on the other foot as the Aes Sedai work hard to prevent men from becoming too magically powerful via what is known as the "One Power." When a male is suspected of using magic, he is hunted down and stripped of his abilities. Most dangerous among them is Logain (Álvaro Morte), who claims to be a reincarted messiah. As you'll see in the second image below, Logain is locked up for his hubris.
"These are not just a bunch of princesses swanning around in pretty dresses," costume designer Isis Mussenden told Entertainment Weekly, which was the first news outlet to debut the images. "These are women doing jobs. They're taking care of the governance; they're taking care of healing."
Check out the production stills below:
Moiraine's story begins when she saves the community of Two Rivers from a monster attack. Now responsible for these refugees, she leads them all on "a journey that will either save or destroy humanity," Pike teased to EW.
"I try to stick to the spine and the heart of the books, and bring that to the screen," added showrunner/executive producer Rafe Judkins (previously a writer on shows like Chuck and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). "If I can successfully do that, the story and the characters will sell themselves."
Judkins also asserted that The Wheel of Time is unlike anything audiences have seen before in this genre, calling it "the first fantasy series that really dove into the political and cultural worlds of all these different characters."
The title refers to the fact that history repeats itself over and over until the lines between legend, myth, prophecy, and reality become blurred.
The Wheel of Time premieres on Amazon Prime Video this November (a specific date has yet to be announced). An unrelated trilogy of films inspired by the books is also in the works from Thor and X-Men screenwriter, Zack Stentz.
