Last fall Amazon announced that they gave a series order to an adaptation of The Wheel of Time. This series is rumored to begin filming in Prague in September of this year, so, if things go well, we may see the series available in 2021 on Amazon.
What We Know
We know that the first two episodes of the series will be directed by Uta Briesewitz, who was involved with Stranger Things, Westworld, Jessica Jones, The Iron Fist, and The Defenders among others. Also, Rafe Judkins serves as the showrunner and has worked on Chuck, Agents of SHIELD, Uncharted, The Division and other projects. And recently, it was announced that Rosamund Pike will be joining the series as Moiraine.
Please welcome Rosamund Pike to the Wheel of Time family. Say hello to Moiraine. #WoTWednesday pic.twitter.com/577Hffwy6Y— Wheel of Time Writers’ Room (@WoTWritersRoom) June 19, 2019
Rafe Judkins’ Twitter account and the WOT Writer’s Room are great resources for keeping up to date with the happenings on the series. I’m looking forward to learning more about who will be joining the project and hopefully seeing a trailer soon.
The Story
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
The Wheel of Time was a series by Robert Jordan, written in the 1980s and originally published starting in 1990. There are 14 novels in the series and a prequel set 20 years before the events of the first book. Robert Jordan died in 2007 while working on the 12th book, which was originally supposed to be the final book. His widow, Harriet McDougal, provided Brandon Sanderson with Jordan’s notes and Sanderson finished the series in three books.
The series starts in a small village, much like the Shire, and follows five people from that village as they travel with an Aes Sedai — a kind of sorceress — her Warder, and a gleeman. The Wheel of Time in the series is represented as a turning wheel that brings about different ages, repeating in cycles, which reminds me of the Wheel of Samsara in Buddhist thought. Additionally, the lore has elements of dualism with a Creator and the forces of Light against Shai’Tan and the forces of Darkness. The magic system in these books involves people chanelling the Power that is one but becomes two: saidin and saidar (the male and female halves of the Power respectively). This aspect of the Power reminds me of the Dao, where the Dao becomes one, and one becomes two, two becomes three, and three becomes 10,000. Moreover, the Power is comprised of Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Spirit.
I’ve read four of the WOT books and will continue reading the series over the next year or so. I will be writing book reviews on my blog here, and also on my Youtube channel and Goodreads account. I will still be putting up photography related content, but will be branching out into other mediums of storytelling.
The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. No eye can see the Pattern until it is woven