Desting Calling
THE WHEEL OF TIME SEEMS poised to become the latest fantasy addiction. The Amazon show, based on author Robert Jordan’s bestselling 14-book series, ticks all the right boxes when it comes to the genre.
Spellcasters. A Chosen One prophecy. Ancient evils. A quest. Reluctant heroes. Showrunner Rafe Judkins promises that the TV series delivers all of that… and much more.
“The thing that fantasy and television series share is this investment that the audience has in these characters and what happens next,” Judkins (Agents Of SHIELD, Hemlock Grove) tells SFX. “I don’t think you read 14 books of something just because you want to see big battles or magic or creatures. You read them because you want to see what happens to these people that you have fallen in love with.
“I had read the books years and years ago, but I remember those characters,” he continues. “I remember the choices they made. You’ll find consistently with people who’ve read all the books in The Wheel Of Time that they have an emotional connection to the series and the characters. That’s fertile ground for making a television show, when you have characters that resonate with people emotionally like that.”
WORLD BUILDING
The sprawling tale takes place in a world where only women can channel the One Power, or in other words wield magic. Some are specially trained to do so as part of a group called the Aes Sedai. When sorcerer Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) arrives in the sleepy town of Two Rivers, she encounters a group of youngsters that fans fondly refer to as the Emond’s Field Five: Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski), Egwene (Madeleine Madden), Mat (Barney Harris), Nynaeve (Zoe Robins) and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford). Moiraine suspects one of them may be the reincarnated Dragon, an uber-powerful entity destined to either save humanity or destroy it. Together, they embark on a perilous mission across the globe to discover the truth.