Rafe Judkins, showrunner for Amazon’s upcoming The Wheel of Time series has revealed why the show’s main characters are older than their book counterparts. Based on the epic fantasy series penned by Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time is a mammoth tale that spans thirteen enormous tomes and is one of the bestselling fantasy series since J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. While Jordan himself passed away before being able to complete his series, thanks to the copious notes he had prepared prior to his death, fellow author and fan of the series Brandon Sanderson was able to come in and finish the final two books.
Over the years multiple attempts at bringing Jordan’s work to the screen, either as a television series or as a feature-length film, have emerged. Back in 2000, Jordan himself revealed that NBC had approached him for a potential mini-series, and in 2008 Universal Studios had optioned the first book The Eye of the World for a film adaptation. Neither project would eventuate, and again in 2015 Red Eagle Entertainment paid to air a low-budget Wheel of Time pilot, made with the sole intent of holding onto the television rights. Nonetheless, a year later the film rights reverted back to Jordan’s wife and editor Harriet McDougal, and a deal was struck with Sony to begin work on a proper Wheel of Time adaption with Judkins at the helm.
After striking a deal with Amazon to distribute the series exclusively via their Prime Video streaming service, filming officially commenced in 2019. With the first season now set to premiere in November, Amazon has revealed their first look images showing a slightly older quintet of lead characters than fans may have expected. When a keen-eyed fan took to Twitter to ask Judkins why Barney Harris’s Matrim “Mat” Cauthon was sporting a beard in the new pics, the showrunner replied: “We aged up the Emond’s Field Five from the books because sometimes TV shows with a bunch of 17 year olds as leads feel more like YA and Wheel of Time isn’t YA”. Check out the original Tweets below:
While Jordan’s fans may be somewhat perplexed by the decision to age up the show’s leads from their appearances in the original The Eye of the World book, this certainly isn’t the first time a TV adaptation has made changes to the source material suit the needs of the medium. In 2015 the Syfy channel similarly aged Quentin Coldwater and the leading characters of The Magicians based on the fantasy novels by Lev Grossman, and one only needs to talk to fans of George R.R. Martin to learn about the myriad of differences Game of Thrones made to his Song of Ice and Fire books. While it is nearly impossible for any adaptation to remain 100% faithful to the books, the question is whether those changes serve to help or hinder the final product.
With HBO currently hip-deep in preparing their own Game of Thrones prequel series, and Netflix enjoying the enormous success of both The Witcher and Shadow and Bones adaptations, fantasy fans will be keen to see how well Amazon delivers on the enormous potential of The Wheel of Time. With the streamer already greenlighting a second season even before the show has premiered indicates that they are confident the new show will deliver the goods. Amazon’s The Wheel of Time is set to debut on Prime Video in November this year.
Source: Rafe Judkins