Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins says he already has eight seasons planned out. The live-action adaptation of Robert Jordan’s beloved fantasy novels is set to launch on Amazon Prime Video in November, and the studio has already ordered a second season ahead of the season 1 premiere. Wheel of Time will star Rosamund Pike as Moiraine, Josha Stradowski as Rand al’Thor, and an ensemble of supporting stars including Marcus Rutherford, Zoë Robins, Barney Harris, and Madeleine Madden.
After the raging success of Game of Thrones on HBO, other studios have rushed to develop their own fantasy series. HBO will look to continue its original success with George R. R. Martin’s franchise with the upcoming prequel series House of the Dragon, Netflix struck out into a less brutal fantasy world with season 1 of Shadow and Bone earlier in 2021, and Amazon is currently working on two different potential competitors – Wheel of Time, and the big-budget Lord of the Rings series set prior to the events of Peter Jackson’s films. In short, it’s a good time to be a fantasy fan.
According to Judkins, Wheel of Time could be delivering great fantasy content to fans for many years to come. Speaking recently on the Amazon panel for Comic-Con@Home 2021, Judkins revealed that he’s already planned out eight potential seasons for the series. With fourteen core novels in Jordan’s series, there’s certainly plenty of content available for adaptation. In fact, squeezing everything into eight seasons might even feel a bit tight for some diehard fans. When Wheel of Time season 1 premieres on Amazon in November, those fans will be able to judge the show’s pacing and structure for themselves.
For those disappointed by the Game of Thrones finale, it should be somewhat comforting to know that Judkins is keeping the full scope of the Wheel of Time story in mind for the upcoming Amazon series. As a fan of Jordan’s novels himself, it sounds like he has a good grasp on what the core of the story is and what parts will drive the show. Hopefully, the first two seasons do well enough to merit much more.
With streaming platforms gearing up for the future, Wheel of Time isn’t the only upcoming show with lots of planned seasons. Apple TV+’s Foundation series – an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s acclaimed sci-fi novels set to premiere in September – also has a lot of ideas already set out, according to writer David S. Goyer. There are a lot of exciting big-budget adaptations coming to streaming in the future, and it should be exciting to see how Wheel of Time and the rest stack up.
Source: Rafe Judkins / Comic-Con International