Wheel of Time being made into a TV series

[Riceball]

I'm surprised that no one here has posted this news already and I apologize if it already has and I missed it. Anyway, Wheel of Time fans rejoice, it was announced recently the late author's (Robert Jordan) widow that she managed to get the rights back to make a TV series based on her husband's epic work. There's no details yet except that a major studio should be making some sort of announcement about this soon.

I'm really curious as to how they're going to do this since the book series is 14 books long, and not 14 short books but 14 books of decent length, at least equal to the books in the Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones) series. They'd have to try to do at least 2 books a season to keep it from dragging out much longer than 7 seasons, which seems to be about the limit for most scripted shows these days. Regardless, I'm definitely looking forward to this and I'm hoping that the studio that's working on this will do a good job, better than that crappy pilot that came out from Red Eagle Entertainment.

http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2016/04/the-wheel-of-time-turns-into-a-cutting-edge-tv-series/

 

[The Mad Professor]

Let's just hope they do a better job than The Shannara Chronicles...

 

[Psicorp7]

Wow! That is a major undertaking. I hope the studio is in it for the long haul. It is quite the tale!

 

[Paul Andrew]

Those books are almost solely responsible for my wanting to write. They better not F it up. :lol

 

[Wes R]

Let's just hope they do a better job than The Shannara Chronicles...

No kidding, it had a ton of potential from the previews but the writing was so generic they intentionally left plot holes, then again it is MTV. Hopefully the station that pays for this series will put more effort into it like they do with Game of Thrones. I really wish someone would make a tv series out of some scifi stuff soon.

 

[PoopaPapaPalps]

There was a Wheel of Time pilot made with Billy Zane (for 5 dollars) a few years ago and it was a complete bore. I hear good things about the book series but I'm dubious about any live-action series adaptation doing justice to it.

 

[Riceball]

I just watched that abomination of a pilot on YouTube the other and it was pretty bad, horrible production values and mediocre acting. It doesn't set a very high bar to go over. From what I've read, the implication is that it will be a high end production along the line of Game of Thrones, but that could just be marketing hype but I hope that it's true.

 

[Gator Fett]

I've been following the recent casting decisions and this could turn out to be pretty good. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the costume and set pieces to get an idea of how accurate they can be to the source material.

 

[Psab keel]

I'm shocked that this hasn't come to pass yet when you consider the overall success of Game of Thrones.

 

[Paul Andrew]

I've been following the recent casting decisions and this could turn out to be pretty good. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the costume and set pieces to get an idea of how accurate they can be to the source material.

I've been pretty impressed so far. Optimistic!

 

[tcsmit29]

This could be pretty cool. I would rather have an adaptation of the first two trilogies of the DragonLance series though.

 

[Gator Fett]

It's been a year since they began filming, and if not for the shutdown they would have wrapped up the first season. I believe the cast and crew are back in Prauge to finish the final two episodes of Season 1.

Other than a few choices that don't match the character in my head, the casting has been fantastic.

Props to Dragonmount.com for the below image. A great site and resource for all things WoT related.

 

[Paul Andrew]

I'm about 50% through book 3 on my reread now, and I'm really excited for this show. I know a lot of folks couldn't do WoT because the books are the size of VW's but they are my favorite epic fantasy, bar none. The casting looks pretty inspired to me, and the little tidbits they've been dropping are really fun without giving anything away.

 

[JoeG]

The teaser trailer has been released.

 

[Paul Andrew]

The teaser trailer has been released.

It has been a long, long time since a trailer got me emotional. I've lived with these characters since 1994 and I am super pumped for this show.

 

[Darth Lars]

From the trailer, I can only judge the casting, costumes, art direction and effects ... and for me that's a mixed bag. I think the comic books and the 1999 video game had been more true to the source material in some ways.
I hope the acting and story-telling is done well. And I wish it hadn't been on Amazon.

 

[ScourgiousJinx]

It is what it is. The books were highly imaginative though. If you haven't read them don't let Amazon's interpretation put you off.

 

[Paul Andrew]

I'm not going to judge this adaptation too harshly against the source material, but I'll give it the same slack I gave the LotR movies as far as my own expectations go.

So long as they nail the feel of the books and do well enough with the big events of the series I will be pretty happy.

 

[Darth Lars]

Trailer's up:

There's also a 360° panorama thing but that doesn't work in my browser.

 

[Paul Andrew]

There is a lot to unpack in that trailer, and some really exciting stuff I wouldn't have expected to see in a first season.