What's New With Amazon's Wheel of Time Adaptation?

It's been 30 years since the release of Eye of the World and the series is finally getting a television adaptation. Let's take a look at the latest news.

It seems like only yesterday that Harriet McDougal, the wife, and editor, to the late Robert Jordan, announced to the world that The Wheel of Time, one of the best-selling fantasy series of all time, would finally be adapted into a high-budget television production. Of course, that was actually April 2016 and we have come a long way since the announcement.

Over the past two years, we've followed the announcement of a production studio in Amazon, a showrunner in Rafe Judkins, casting announcements, and finally information on the filming. It's been a fun ride and we are getting closer and closer to finally seeing The Wheel of Time on our televisions.

There have been a number of major announcements over the past month that are certainly worthy of discussion. Here at TheGreatBlight.com, we will be covering all of the latest news and this past month has certainly been eventful in terms of information about the series. We're going to summarize all of the major information in this article and you can see a more detailed report by watching Nae'blis' video below.

Make sure to subscribe to Nae'blis YouTube channel for more Wheel of Time content and follow him here on TheGreatBlight.com.

Filming Has Resumed

The Wheel of Time production had been shut down due to COVID-19 since March 13th, but it had been rumored that production would be starting again soon. There had been reports of many of the production staff members as well as cast members being back in Prague for filming.

This was finally confirmed by WoTseries.com, one of the best Wheel of Time news websites out there. They have confirmed that filming on the show resumed on September 7th, 2020 in Prague. This comes very close to the 1-year anniversary of the start of principal filming on September 16th, 2019. Of course, with the 1-year anniversary of filming, the WotOnPrime Twitter and Instagram accounts did not disappoint, giving us a great teaser showing the Winespring Inn. You can watch the short clip below and Wheel of Time video creator Unraveling the Pattern made an excellent video breaking down all the parts from the trailer that is certainly worth a watch!

You can watch Unraveling The Pattern's video here:

Before filming had shut down, we had learned that only the first 6 episodes of the first season were filmed to completion. As production starts back up to finish the remaining 2 episodes, we have also learned that filming is expected to continue until mid-December, leading to some speculation that there may be some re-shoots from the first 6 episodes as well to cover that length of time for continuous filming.

Ciaran Donnelly has been tapped to direct the final two episodes. Ciaran is an Irish director most known for his work on Vikings, Camelot, Krypton, and Altered Carbon.

Wheel of Time headliner Rosamund Pike, the actress selected to play Moiraine Damodred, gave an interview to The Collider in which she was asked about Wheel of Time. She commented that she had been back to work for a week at the time filming and that the production was "epic" in scope. With the previous shutdown in production due to coronavirus, she tells Steve Weintraub of The Collider of the precautions and complications that come with filming a major production during a pandemic. With over 500 people present onset and the difficulty of maintaining social distancing while acting, it sounds like they have quite a task ahead of them.

You can watch the entire interview below. The part that references the Wheel of Time starts around the 10-minute mark in the video. You can also read the article here.

We have also learned in the past few weeks that Kae Alexander, the actress cast to play Min Farshaw, has arrived in Prague to begin filming as well. It was also leaked that this would be her first time on set (this is unconfirmed, but seemingly coming from her own agent). If this is the case, that would

certainly have implications on the timeline for the story. It would seem Min is to be introduced much later in the first season and possibly not in Baerlon as in the books. This would make sense if they want to give her a larger role in the story to keep her from having what would otherwise be a cameo role in the first season.

New Filming Locations

According to WoTseries.com, two new filming locations have been found near Prague.

The first of the locations mentioned is a walled town outside Prague called Terezín. According to WoTseries.com, the filming primarily took place near a bridge and entrance that is for pedestrian traffic only.

The second location mentioned is another small fort town called Josefov Fortress. This is another walled town and the filming here took place at night and at the same time as the filming in Terezín.

Both of the filming sites appear to be Fal Dara at our best estimation. The lack of pomp looking at the walls and the utilitarian nature of the forts seem to indicate a fort city like Fal Dara over a beautiful capital city like Caemlyn or Tar Valon.

Release Schedule

While we still don't know anything about the planned release schedule for The Wheel of Time and whether the show will follow the streaming service staple of releasing all of the episodes at once, or going with a more traditional weekly release schedule, there has been some indication that Amazon is open to weekly releases.

The Boys, Amazon's farcical take on what superheroes would actually be like if they were real, has been a smash hit since it was released last year. In its first season, The Boys released in the binge-watching format with all 8 of its episodes coming out at once. With the second season, however, The Boys producer Eric

Kripke decided to go in a different direction. The second season released the first three episodes to be binged but then has followed a weekly release schedule since with the season finale coming this Friday, October 9th. Kripke is on record saying that this change was his call and his intention was to let fans generate more buzz around the show and anticipation for the following episode. The thought is that this would keep the buzz around the show going longer.

The fact that The Boys is a show that is not only produced by Amazon, but also Sony Pictures Television, the same two production partners that are behind The Wheel of Time, certainly gives credence to the idea that Rafe Judkins will have the power to decide how the show will b