A recent Deadline interview with Jennifer Salke, the new head of Amazon Studios, confirmed what had been rumored for some time: A television adaptation of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series is one of the projects in development at the streaming service. While news broke in 2017 that Sony Pictures Television was adapting the series, with Rafe Judkins as showrunner, this interview confirms Amazon’s role in the adaptation.
The project gets one mention in the larger piece:
DEADLINE: What is the status of other high-profile genre projects that have been in early development at Amazon or stuck in deal-making limbo for a long time, The Wheel of Time (based on the fantasy books), and The Dark Tower (based on the book and the movie)?
SALKE: Those are scripts that I haven’t gotten yet. I’ll be seeing those, that material, in the coming weeks. None of those things are dead. They’re very much alive.
So, more acknowledgement that the series is indeed in the works than anything else. Hopefully there will be more updates from Amazon or the creative team to come.
In the meantime, The Wheel of Time has been named one of Americans’ 100 most beloved books by PBS’ The Great American Read series. Plus, join epic fantasy enthusiast Sylas K Barrett in Reading the Wheel of Time for the first time.
I love this series! But that doesn’t mean I’ll love a film adaptation- what if they screw it up?
I’m going to wait until we actually have a scheduled release date and firm casting details before getting excited…
Forget a firm release date — I’d be much happier with “I’ve seen the script and I’m excited about the project.” Saying that something is “Not dead” is a far cry from “It’s alive and well” and Wheel of Time fans have been burned before.
@sue a: If they screw it up, we’ll all still have the books we love. That’s worst case scenario, so I say let them give it a shot!
I agree with Beren & Son of Thunder – until a script has been approved and casting begins, we can’t get too excited (even if it does keep people up at night…)!
Everyone needs to realize that any adaptation is going to be just that – an adaptation.
We will NEVER see 14-15 seasons that will be exactly like the books. In reality, I am expecting 8-10 seasons of 10 episodes per season. Luckily, Robert went off into the woods with several non-important characters around books 7-11, so there is a lot that can be weeded out to streamline the story for television. And I wouldn’t expect to see anything from New Spring (that isn’t already in the main books).
My real concern is that it is in direct competition at Amazon with the world of Tolkien, which they spent over $240,000,000 to buy the complete rights for. That’s $240 MILLION dollars without a script being written, or a second of film being made. Rumor has it that they are planning on spending $500,000,000 to ONE BILLION dollars to film that world alone.
That’s a pretty high standard to compete with when the chopping block comes around.
I honestly do not look forward to this as a television series as it will not tell the story anywhere near what was written. A movie series on the other hand would. If they can manage the series like GOT it would work, but if they do like they did for legend of the seeker series its doomed to failure (Terry Goodkind series from The Sword of Truth books). All too often they change series to a set format to have a problem, solve problem and call it a wrap, rinse/repeat, having very little to do with original story line. The books do this but have a long build up and I do not see television not trying to squeeze this into an hour show every single time.
Amazon’s first priority is lord of the rings tv series, they simply invested too much money acquiring it, according to the contract with the tolkien estate they must start production within 2 years from november 2017,with a tentative release date of the first season in 2020 or 2021,i don’t expect anything happening with the wheel of time tv series before that.
@5 We wouldn’t really need a season per book or to cut out stuff from the later books. Not as much actually happens in the later books. I would say it could be broken down as so:
Season 1:Book 1
Season 2: Book 2
Season 3:Book 3
Season 4: Book 4-5
Season 5: Book 6-7
Season 6: Book 8-9
Season 7: Book 10-11
Season 8&9: Book 12-14
@sue a: As long as they do better than the recent Dark Tower movie, I’ll be happy.
I hope this happens, with Game of Thrones ending and no new details on the Lord of the Rings series we need a fantasy series.
About time I start reading this series. Once I finished The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee I’m setting my teeth into WOT.
I’m mediocre on it. But honestly it has the potential to be a better TV show then it was a book series. I mean not the first four books, but the middle six.. replotted with some cutting…
I think they’ll butcher it, just as bad or worse than game of Thrones, which ended up being a massively different story than the books. I can’t imagine it could be as bad an adaptation as was netflix’s Altered Carbon though. I can understand wanting the extra money a TV adaptation of one’s novels would bring, but how Richard Morgan allowed his work to be butchered like that is a question that I’d love to get the answer to, one day.
@13: Once an author sells the movie rights, they typically have very little say in what is done with those. J.K. Rowling sold her rights for less money in return for some actual control over the Harry Potter books.
@8, John; has a good basic outline. Though I think the books will get more muddled than that in Books 6-10.
The books themselves only take place in the span of 2-3 years. I really hope the Perrin / Faile plot does not stretch out over 2 seasons. Unless it’s a case of she’s kidnapped at the end of a season, then it takes until the end of the next season to rescue her. Yes, Perrin’s growth is important, but we don’t need to see emo Perrin for 3 seasons.
@6: I’m wondering how you think 2 hour movies would do better than 10 hour seasons per-books. The effects money might be better, but the story would suffer.
I hope they have a great Special Effects team. While Grimm was on T.V. I thought that team did an excellent job on the creature effects, doubly so for a T.V. budget. It was B2FX.
Any chance they’d look at creating an original series about a different incarnation of the Dragon and his/her trials and tribulations in defeating the Dark One?
I know that’s not what anyone expects, but I just don’t think there’s any way they can do justice to the books with all the lands, people, characters, organizations, and POV scenes required to explain and pull it all off properly.
Forget WoT.
Joe Abercrombie for the win!
Please pleAse please make this happen. Even if they don’t fully follow every detail, which would be impossible. It will be the greatest series of all time!!!
Amazon has done a fantastic job with The Man In The High Castle. I have a good feeling if they put some effort into the project. Obviously there is a ton of source material to use. So as long as they stay somewhere on the baseline I can be happy. I’ve been waiting ages for a serious crack at this story. Plus they are doing it right by proposing an actual series. No way a mere movie or mini-series could do it justice. Hopefully it won’t be a butcher’s job like MTVs Shannara Chronicles.
Book 1 could easily fit into one season.
Ep 1 – Farm to Village (Day)
Ep 2 – Farm to Village (Night) & Escape
Ep 3 – Travel to and stay in Baerlon (Nynaeve, Min, White Cloaks)
Ep 4 – Shadar Logoth
And here is where it get tricky. Because the journey from Shadar Logoth to Camelyn is split into three parts and there is a lot of filler that could be cut (half of Rand/Mats walk)
Ep 5 & 6 – Lan/Moraine/Nynaeve, Mat/Rand/Thom, Egwene/Perrin interwoven stories on getting to Caemlyn. Can be split or mixed together.
Ep 7 – Camelyn introducing several key characters (Elayne, Elaida, Loial and Logain)
Ep 8 – The Ways
Ep 9 – Fal Dara arrival and preparations
Ep 10 – Travel to the Eye (would make for some interesting CGI worm battles)
Ep 11 – Battle at the Eye and Aftermath
I agree with Matt Rifley about books 7 to 11 they wander all over the place. Another Author whose books ended up as a dreadful TV series is Terry Brooks. The Shannara Chronicles was abysmal.
I’m willing to go into it with an open mind. The books still exist, and unlike GoT, we KNOW how it ends, and so we always have that to return to.
I was taken for a wild (best i can remember) ride by this story, it’s rich history and multi-age spanning, cyclical scale of time lay out an unlimited world of wonder. i would agree with some who have said that the first few books could each get their own season but there would have to be alot of cutting and editing through the middle of the story to make sure it is still flowing and contributing to the character’s and the plot progression. i could live with a tad less servant perspective in some places but at the end of the day, as long as its pretty close to the main plot and hits the big points, i have never been so excited about any single thing as this before.
I always wondered if WOT would do better as an Anime Series. Spend the money on high quality voice actors and and less on special effects. Would allow the artist in the studio more creativity and control over the final product. I would watch it.
We all saw what happen to Eragon and when it went to a movie /shiver
They can’t do any worse than Brandon Sanderson did with Mat’s character in the last 3 books.
My humble and heart-felt thanks go to Brandon for finishing the series — but he just couldn’t do justice to Mat.
Anime?!? What are we, 12? You couldn’t make me watch WOT-Anime even if I were in a mind-trap.
I agree with the wondering verbosity of books 7-11. I sometimes re-read books 1-5 then skip to book 10. How many books was Faile captured by the Shaido?
Hopefully Harriet and Brandon will be involved in the series. It will need people involved who not just loved the series but dedicated portions of their lives to it.
If the episode titles Rafe puts on his twitter are correct, it’s possible each episode is covering at least 10 chapters in the EoTW. This would mean a 2-book-per-season if there are 10 episodes each season.
When I heard about a WOT series, I was excited. What we really need is a summary of the main arcs, but not taking too long. We don’t need to focus too long on anything in particular, like Perrin and Faile or the Mat and Tylin.*shudders*Maybe we could focus on each character’s actions and interactions starting off at them splitting up at shadar logoth. An episode for each major character per book and 2 for minor arcs, skipping certain things as needed? Lots of room for error, but could explain thing much more smoothly than other options.
Well, i guess at the very least i might make it thru to the end of the saga in this format, because i just can’t seem to finish off the print version. Twice in the last decade or so I’ve tried to get thru it, starting off so strong and then just petering out around Knife of Dreams both times….the books for some reason losing my interest… Well it can’t be any worse than Legend of the Seeker was… or can it? A total butcher in both casting and writing of a pretty good series of novels.
While I would LOVE to see this in live action, I’ve been disappointed before. The last time was with the disaster that was the Shannara series. If they do WOT like Terry Brooks did Shannara series (shudders at the very thought). And the less said about the Seeker of Truth series the better. But if they do it right, it would dominate ALL.
@28 Lots of people have petered out in Winter’s Heart. It gets better again at Knife of Dreams.
Dear Wheel of Time Showrunners / Amazon Producers,
If you read message boards (and I hope you do) PLEASE seriously consider the following:
1) Hire women writers – RJ’s world has many female characters who have strong, individual personalities – please incorporate the voices and talents of diverse individuals to the writing room to capture these nuances! The story will be so much better if the balance of female-male energies that is central to the books is reflected in the tone and writing of the show.
2) Consult actual living magical practitioners to build out the world. I adore Jordan’s books especially because you can tell he did deep research into multiple magical traditions and cultures. Please get the perspectives of living pagans, druids, witches, shamans, etc. to consult on various aspects of the world to make it more real!! None of this superficial Hollywood version of “magic”. If you need a list of folks I can help.
3) Whatever you do: DO NOT give this series the MTV Shannara teenage, crazy, cheesy, poor CGI, emo series treatment. That production is an insult to Terry Brooks’ work and I feel for him. The WoT fans, Sanderson, Harriet (and the spirit of Robert Jordan) deserve so much better.
Many thanks in advance. We appreciate all of the time, energy and resources that you will devote to this project. Blessed Be.
I personally liked the idea that HBO was going to do this. I saw on another world where they even had all the characters. https://theprose.com/post/92852/journal-of-a-wondering-mind-through-the-multiverse the whole cast was on imdb..
Please don’t let it be another Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie conversion!
i agree has the potential to be as great as if not better than game of thrones but will take a super budget and really good casting if they cut corners it may turn out just ehhh
There are a lot of things that will trim down the books when they turn it into a show. Descriptions of clothing, eyebrow twitches and Jordan’s odd way of trying to say that something changed its meaning without changing expression. Faile’s story could be trimmed after Perrin beats the Trollocs at the Two Rivers. Almost everything to do with Cadsuane could go along with the vast majority of the later White Tower plots under Elaida. While we are on that, the Shaido can be cut completely after Dumai’s Well. Drop the annoying Sea Folk characters down to say, one party of them. All of the “possible futures” from Egwene and Nynaeve could be cut to one that shows what the rings do and what the women face who go through them. Most of books 7-11 are just filler like Rands trip to Far Madding.
That’s just off the top of my head and I haven’t re read the books in a couple years. They could easily get this down to 8 seasons while not cutting much actual story. Heck, the entire final season will probably be the last battle and hopefully a little of what comes after.
The song of Ice and Fire story was royally screwed, but it turned out quite okay as a TV series. My point is don’t be too eager to jump down the show runner’s metaphoric throat until you have watched the first season. As a diehard fan of both BOOK series, I can say I have thoroughly enjoyed the TV series A Game of Thrones, despite its departure from the books, and despite it surpassing the books (after A Dance with Dragons) into new territory, and I can say wholeheartedly that the Wheel of Time TV series is just as hotly anticipated as A.G.O.T.
Has potential to be as good if not better than Game of Thrones… I just hope they dont screw it up like “the seeker” (the sword of truth series by Terry Goodkind), Eragon, butchered so bad (never will there be Eldest, Brisingr, or inheritance) almost positive they never read the books…
Firstly, to his wife, thank you both for your service to our country during Vietnam and after.
Just please do the the novels justice. This is Americas Tolkien and in my opinion equal to Tolkien (and I love Tolkien). Robert Jordan’s world is original and it is not based on magic but lost technology, and at least to me psychic abilities.
TWoT is the most original scifi fantasy I have ever read. Please don’t butcher it. I would rather leave it as a book than see it butchered.
Well I hope they do well with this series as the author and family went through a lot to make sure the story was completed even with his death. I must say though I’d rather a real attempt to keep true to the story I have at least enjoyed the Shannara series which keeps to the ideas though not a direct take. My fear is as a number of people have said of so many stories that are destroyed by sales people trying to play to demographic studies with no clue or care to the actual series. I don’t think I can even think of a dark tower series after the travesty of the movie that makes no sense to me.
My opinion, start with stories that people would like to learn outside the book series. Start back where it all began with the concepts established in story and with author notes and the input of family and the author (Sanderson) that was trust with the completion. If they start in the prehistory then less toes to step on as they establish things.
Please make this happen! I think the challenging aspect of creating this series will be the special effects related to weaving. It’s such an integral concept to the series that they will have to fund it in a way that it’s done correctly. If they can stay true to the main plot arch, and get the special effects right, it will be epic!
It scares me thinking how “they” can screw up a series of books that I Love. I was so excited when GOT was made into a TV series. I love the books. HBO ruined it for me putting so much sex and nudity that was not in the books. I watched the first 2 episodes and never turned it on again. I want great casting,story and character development, beautiful costumes and the exotic worlds the stories take place in. I want the books portrayed as Jordan saw and wrote them.
I have been spoiled by HBO, Starz, and showtime in the sense that when someone kills someone with a sword or a spell it isn’t cheesy CGI or horrible acting. If they curse they say more than “Damn” and there are no commercials to interrupt the flow. With that being said I am highly in support of Amazon taking this series because it has the funding and ability to put it out there well. What I don’t want to see is 45 minute episodes OR episodes where it is clear the cast or director/producers have not read the books.
Hire female writers for the female roles and males for the male roles. An issue I had with TWoT is that the female characters were good, but, too often they would simply be found crossing their arms under their breasts and huffing and puffing in the corner. I think if you can nail down the female characters then the series will sell itself even to those that haven’t read the books. Also, Mat should be played by a young version of Ryan Reynolds (personality wise).
When will this air any idea at all?