Wheel of Time TV Series In The Works

[ravenmoon]

Did you just call me a yank? EEK!

Altara seems the most Spanish to me.

Actually you're right on that one.. Tarabon seems more like Phoencian/Lebanese sorta.

I can't quite place Arad Doman, or the Children of Light, which sorta remind you of the crusades, but not quite. Artur Hawkwing is Alexandar the Great, who lived longer but with a more British vibe

Mannetheren - I can't quite place Manatheren, except for another type of British themed Europe?

[Kreuger]

New casting today:

"Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton in GoT) has been cast as Tam al'Thor in the Amazon Wheel of Time series."

https://twitter.com/WoTonPrime/statu...24485022863361

[Rennadrel]

You... Thought the fighting was good?!?!

All those fucking sword moves that never were described in any way.. "The Boar Rushes Down the Mountain"... met by "Apple Blossoms in the Wind" and then retaliated with "Cat on Hot Sand"...

Was that a good fighting scene in your mind?

Sword forms are a common practice in certain parts of the world. It wouldn't be too hard to adapt them, especially from Japanese martial arts into something believable. Between fencing, the Japanese long sword and short sword, you have 3 individual forms to choose from alone that can be used as inspiration for Jordan's sword forms.

[Borgmore]

Yeah its terrible when someone writes a book you love but spoils it by actually writing it....how bad can you get?

[Gallahadd]

New casting today:

That's actally pretty solid casting. Seems like the supporting cast for this show is going to be pretty strong.

[Kreuger]

4 more castings today

https://dragonmount.com/news/tv-show/castinglltp/

The Wheel of Time TV show on Amazon Prime has cast actors for Logain, Loial, Thom Merrilin, and Padan Fain.

[pseudodraco]

4 more castings today

https://dragonmount.com/news/tv-show/castinglltp/

The Wheel of Time TV show on Amazon Prime has cast actors for Logain, Loial, Thom Merrilin, and Padan Fain.

i wanted to see sam eliott as thom merrilin, i think that would've been perfect

[Kreuger]

i wanted to see sam eliott as thom merrilin, i think that would've been perfect

Yeah, the only casting I was a little suprised with, but I still like the cast. Always imagined Thom as older and more gruff, not this good looking.

But then I like that they use lesser known actors

[Zaktar]

Yeah, the only casting I was a little suprised with, but I still like the cast. Always imagined Thom as older and more gruff, not this good looking.

But then I like that they use lesser known actors

That had to be a tough one to cast, whoever it is needs to be sonorous, agile, and a real heavyweight in terms of acting because they have to carry a wide range. Supposed to be leathery and look like they could have once been handsome, perhaps, but has to be young enough to hang on for however many seasons. This guy looks interesting. If they get the mustache wrong

[ravenmoon]

Yeah, the only casting I was a little suprised with, but I still like the cast. Always imagined Thom as older and more gruff, not this good looking.

But then I like that they use lesser known actors

Older yes/perhaps, but I always imagined he would be quite a looker, even for an old man, you would see he would be clearly hnadsome given who falls for him (Morgase I think for example).

But I always imagined him as a skinny musician type, smaller man, not someone hulking.

Isn't Padain Fain meant to be sickly white and pasty after the dagger gets him? I thought they'd do a Golam like thing, and a black actor? Sorry, though I don't mean it to sound racist, but skinny white guys do creepy crazy mad psycho so much better... this should be an interesting challenge to my stereotyping. Not seen Myers in action before, so I wonder what thisl will be like

[Noxina]

Older yes/perhaps, but I always imagined he would be quite a looker, even for an old man, you would see he would be clearly hnadsome given who falls for him (Morgase I think for example).

But I always imagined him as a skinny musician type, smaller man, not someone hulking.

Isn't Padain Fain meant to be sickly white and pasty after the dagger gets him? I thought they'd do a Golam like thing, and a black actor? Sorry, though I don't mean it to sound racist, but skinny white guys do creepy crazy mad psycho so much better... this should be an interesting challenge to my stereotyping. Not seen Myers in action before, so I wonder what thisl will be like

They honestly don't seem to care about the colour of the actors to be honest. Been some I've not quite understood so far, and I freaking hate it because how people look is a big part in the books.

Got to keep it PC you know..

[ravenmoon]

They honestly don't seem to care about the colour of the actors to be honest. Been some I've not quite understood so far, and I freaking hate it because how people look is a big part in the books.

Got to keep it PC you know..

No, you're right, Jordan is very particular, his works have every so called "race" represented and strongly too.

Tear - or fast east asians - Orientals (mainly)
Seanchan - are black people (mainly)
The sea wayferers - are Indian/pakistani people

You can tell by the descriptions he makes an effort to give where certain racial characteristics and features dominate.

Male and Female roles are also very strong, and also different. Not once does a woman come across as a man despite how formidable she is, and not once does a man come across as a woman (and this is no dig at LGBT representation - b/c a measure of that is hinted in the Red Ajah) The Aes Sedai in this era are female exclusively, yet the world is not a matriarchy in his novel.

In other words, the guy is not making a gender or sexuality statement - and it's very irresponsible for creators to introduce one for the sake of political correctness. Min likes her hair short like a boy, she's a bit of a tom boy, but she's a girl, and not once does she resent that or hate that despite not confirming to societies normal gender stereotyping - I repeat, the book is not some politically correct driven/motivated or even aiming for that.

The racial diversity of our world is represented their, and male and female have both strengths and weakness according their types and their character.

So, the loaded emphasis on Moiraine instead of Rand has me a little concerned.. they making this into a chick thing again?

Do they never learn their lessons?

[Shadowferal]

The books have always been gender-oriented. The supreme power structure are the Aes Sedai, women that can channel, with their pope-like figure, the Amyrlin Seat.
And the One Power is also gender-oriented...

That was why book 6 "Lord of Chaos" had such an impact. The whole women-oriented structure got thrown out.

[Skizzit]

They honestly don't seem to care about the colour of the actors to be honest. Been some I've not quite understood so far, and I freaking hate it because how people look is a big part in the books.

Got to keep it PC you know..

I have seen interviews with Sanderson where he said that Jordan never cared about race as far as grouping people by skin color, he always grouped people by culture. So when we see that say the people of Tear seem to be east asian influenced, it was the culture Jordan based them off of, not that they all looked asian. Now, this is Sanderson saying that since Jordan is no longer with us, but that is the the direction they seem to be going with the series is the impression I get from the casting thus far.

Things like the actor playing Fain having dark skin doesn't bother me at all. Many people are basing things off of the actor's headshots or previous roles but a lot can be done with make-up, wardrobe, and most of all acting. To me, Pain is certainly the type of character that will rely a ton on the performance more so than if the actor playing him has "pasty" skin.

[ravenmoon]

I have seen interviews with Sanderson where he said that Jordan never cared about race as far as grouping people by skin color, he always grouped people by culture. So when we see that say the people of Tear seem to be east asian influenced, it was the culture Jordan based them off of, not that they all looked asian. Now, this is Sanderson saying that since Jordan is no longer with us, but that is the the direction they seem to be going with the series is the impression I get from the casting thus far.

Things like the actor playing Fain having dark skin doesn't bother me at all. Many people are basing things off of the actor's headshots or previous roles but a lot can be done with make-up, wardrobe, and most of all acting. To me, Pain is certainly the type of character that will rely a ton on the performance more so than if the actor playing him has "pasty" skin.

The thing is, cultures have skin colours and racial identities associated with them. 100% the case in human history. If you are defining a modern multi-cultural or ancient regional or global centre, you are going to have peopel of all races there, especially if you're the capital of a bst empire or powerful nation that has global trade going through you.

However even you, like Rome, Britain etc, would have an origin identity, and if you're a mixed cultural society like the USA, you are defined by that from the outset and we would know to expect this. The equivalent in Wheel of Time, would be the likes of Andor - which I tend to think of like a Britain of sorts in that setting, while Cairhien is more like a France, with it's ethcni elite but likely having and undercalss from various refuggess, outcasts and immigrants looking for a better or different life.

I would expect Tear to be mainly oriental, and would not expect Weiramon to be a white dude, or a black dude, unless he was mixed asian. Nor would I expect the sea folk to be northern europeans or chinese.

My point is the that the settings and culture already define their cultural ethnicity and diversity, as well as the ethnicity of the characters. Where they are not defined they can be varied, but if you change them from the Authors Work for reasons of "diversity", then you are being disingenious .. although Padan is not a main character, he is main supporting - and is one of those stronger secondary characters all through.

It's not like it surpirses us, if the reason fro the cast was that the actor was just brilliant at the role and fit it perfectly in an exceptional way, then good for them, I hope it works. Sometimes it works very well, and where it can be allowed, if a suitable candidate is found, I say go for it. Otherwise, stick as much as you can to the actors role. ANd don't be afraid to use new people, especially if they are exceptional, you just never know.

[Skizzit]

The thing is, cultures have skin colours and racial identities associated with them. 100% the case in human history. If you are defining a modern multi-cultural or ancient regional or global centre, you are going to have peopel of all races there, especially if you're the capital of a bst empire or powerful nation that has global trade going through you.

However even you, like Rome, Britain etc, would have an origin identity, and if you're a mixed cultural society like the USA, you are defined by that from the outset and we would know to expect this. The equivalent in Wheel of Time, would be the likes of Andor - which I tend to think of like a Britain of sorts in that setting, while Cairhien is more like a France, with it's ethcni elite but likely having and undercalss from various refuggess, outcasts and immigrants looking for a better or different life.

I would expect Tear to be mainly oriental, and would not expect Weiramon to be a white dude, or a black dude, unless he was mixed asian. Nor would I expect the sea folk to be northern europeans or chinese.

My point is the that the settings and culture already define their cultural ethnicity and diversity, as well as the ethnicity of the characters. Where they are not defined they can be varied, but if you change them from the Authors Work for reasons of "diversity", then you are being disingenious .. although Padan is not a main character, he is main supporting - and is one of those stronger secondary characters all through.

It's not like it surpirses us, if the reason fro the cast was that the actor was just brilliant at the role and fit it perfectly in an exceptional way, then good for them, I hope it works. Sometimes it works very well, and where it can be allowed, if a suitable candidate is found, I say go for it. Otherwise, stick as much as you can to the actors role. ANd don't be afraid to use new people, especially if they are exceptional, you just never know.

But why would you assume that to be true of the WoT universe? The reason cultures have racial identities is because of evolution. I.E. certain groups of people were isolated from others and developed unique cultures along with all having similar physical characteristics. Without getting into spoilers, knowing what we know of the history of the WoT series, that wouldn't really be the case. That isolation did not exist until the pretty recent history of the WoT world so it is entirely possible that most places don't have certain racial identifiers and the world is a much more mixed and varied place in that regard. Only exception would be places that have xenophobic ideas built into their culture and I don't recall seeing any indications of that in the series.

[Orby]

I am still worried about this being a series... my emotions and excitement about this has been all over the place. at times I am like 'I cannot wait' and other times I am like 'maybe this isn't a good idea'

[ravenmoon]

But why would you assume that to be true of the WoT universe?

Why assume the laws of physics apply, or that green trees and animals you're familiar with also exist there? Unless otherwise stated, all fantasy follows our set up, you kinda have to, or you would spend agees rewriting everything and readers will get bored as they are there to read a story, and you can't releate to it much if you change to much.

So as a rule of thumb assume a lo t of RL rules, societal rules etc follow through unless specifically altered by the author.

The reason cultures have racial identities is because of evolution. I.E. certain groups of people were isolated from others and developed unique cultures along with all having similar physical characteristics. Without getting into spoilers, knowing what we know of the history of the WoT series, that wouldn't really be the case. That isolation did not exist until the pretty recent history of the WoT world so it is entirely possible that most places don't have certain racial identifiers and the world is a much more mixed and varied place in that regard. Only exception would be places that have xenophobic ideas built into their culture and I don't recall seeing any indications of that in the series.

That seems a fair point, but it isn't, there is no reason to believe that is the case here. The author has defined certain ethnicities to groups and nations in his world that he has gone to a long extent to define ( I read the entire series several times over, must have read 1-6 about 4 or 5 times (what a waste of my time sadly, but then fixation on wow was even worse, so hey). It is natural to assume that like in real life, there are nations that are predominantly of a particular ethnicity ( he has described several nations' ethnicity), and without him having to say, it is fair to assume that there isn't a 100% purity rate anywhere, and like real life, especially after people's mix like you say there would be a lot of genetic variation, but not enough to assume a country like Tear would have both oriental and black people easily recognised as citizens. Unless a nation is defined (i.e. specifically stated) by the author to be mixed ethnically in a Britain/USA like scenario (Like the children of Light Amadicia would likely be as people come from all over to join the Children), Tar Valon as well would be thoroughly mixed.

And while you could always have the exception of a Cairhienin being black, this would certainly not be the trend or norm. The multi-culturalism of todays society and the general acceptance of it in our society of the last 20 years in Britain for example, does not exist in Jordan's world, unless specifically defined, they rather behave like most nations, where you expect people from Thailand to look a certain way, which is different from people from Iceland or from Ghana.

While you can have thorough mixture like you do in Brazil and a lot of South American, Jordan actually defines the ethnicity of most of the nations quite thoroughly, not just culturally, but physically as well. It makes his world far more vibrant and realistic, event hough the maps are different and the people groups are organised and behave differently (which he defines), the Seanchan are "black power" in essence, but the same emphasis/complexes associated with skin colour that we have in modern society don't exist in his world, he hwas defined it that way, in their world complexes are culturally based or One Power based. but if you are a student of history, you would know that the slave trade of the west in the previous 3-4 centuries has defined most of the attitudes in Europe and USA towards people based on skin colour. Such is not the same for the middle east or the ancient world. So it is not surprising in Jordan's world that doesn't exist for black people. But for people of the One Power it does. In Seanchan they are property, slaves, the Aiel all blonds/reds your Arian nation are considered savages. by much of the so called civilised world.But again, the author specifically defines these.

The tinkers are the spiritual successors of the Aiel people's original identity, that culture was racially defined before the breaking, but post breaking it is completely multircultural, as the Aiel people transitioned from the Way of the Leaf to their current code of honour. But the Tinkers are now multicultural completely, becuae the author defines it, so I would expect, all kinds of ethnicities or rather skin colours amongst them. So you can cast a tinker in any skin colour you want. However I believe Aram is white, it's been a long time, so forgive me if you can actually prove his skin colour was never described, however, I do remember that he was extremely good looking, not Galad good looking, but near enough.

And that is another thing. In after reading some of these descriptions.. if Lanfear is not cast as a pasty , ebony haired drop dead gorgeous female, or Galad is not a ridiculously handsome man, the story loses its charm.

You can't just switch races for some of these characters given how often these particular aspects and features of them are defined. Padan Fain on the other hand, is only really notably physically defined after the dagger has grabbed a hold of him, so maybe that actor fits, but how are you going to show the effect of the dagger I wonder? He gets really skin and gaunt too.

[Grimbold21]

My, for the lack of a better word, concern is that a single season might include more than one book, because, let's be frank here, a substantial part of the story is stationary.

Alright, let me be more accurate, I'm currently up to half way through Lord of Chaos, and the 1st half there's basically little to no movement, outside of Rand portaling here and there, and Mat marching.

A lot of the plot/action is like this, which I imagine would/may lead to a lot of cutting.

As for the whole diversity nonsense, not much can't be done about it. From the fiction I've read, WoT is probably the series that has a strong emphasis on racial/cultural/physical differences. To change is to be stupid and shallow attempt of meeting that ridiculous agenda. The quickest and easiest example for me is the actor cast to play Perin. I don't think the character can be argued to be even remotely african like in its features. You could make a stretch and say he's north african like, not to mention the man is buff.

[ravenmoon]

My, for the lack of a better word, concern is that a single season might include more than one book, because, let's be frank here, a substantial part of the story is stationary.

Alright, let me be more accurate, I'm currently up to half way through Lord of Chaos, and the 1st half there's basically little to no movement, outside of Rand portaling here and there, and Mat marching.

A lot of the plot/action is like this, which I imagine would/may lead to a lot of cutting.

My concern is capturing the charm , depth of intrigue and attractiveness in the narrative and conveying that on screen successfully. However if they fail to do that completely, it's okay, that is what books aref or, to give you the detail and the nuance behind that the authr's explanations and character inner dialogue's portray.

As long as the information doesn't change,but is faithfully accurately conveyed so that you can easily pick up one from the other. I wouldn't mind if part of the 2nd book starts, but then the 1st book is a pretty self contained volume, and one wouldn't blame them for doing it in even 2 seasons, adding extra material that compliments that book without spoiling later volumes.

Off course doing a project like this, you'd best have made plan and format for at least 6 of the books, even if you only ever get to make 1. You must plan ahead.

Wheel of Time was more addictive and engaging than Game of Thrones, and is more PG than the latter, it coul make it more popular if done well, but then again, most of GoTs popularity was because the 18+ R rated material and the shock factor twists, before the supposed cleverness of the plot. Wheel of Time was more interesting, even if it got too bloated towards the end after the creator author got sick.

As for the whole diversity nonsense, not much can't be done about it. From the fiction I've read, WoT is probably the series that has a strong emphasis on racial/cultural/physical differences. To change is to be stupid and shallow attempt of meeting that ridiculous agenda. The quickest and easiest example for me is the actor cast to play Perin. I don't think the character can be argued to be even remotely african like in its features. You could make a stretch and say he's north african like, not to mention the man is buff.

Exactly. It's so un-necessary, because the world already has set up a full multiude and range of diverse cultures and ethnicities in the various people groups you meet and the characters associated with them, you really don't need to "force it through.