It’s been quite a few months since we’ve had any news on Amazon’s upcoming series adaptation of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time epic, but we now have our first piece of casting for the anticipated show as Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) has landed the lead role of Moiraine in the fantasy series.
The Wheel of Time series consists of 14 volumes and a prequel novel, which have sold over 90 million copies around the world, and takes place in a world where magic exists, but only women are able to use it.The story follows Moiraine, a member of the all-female ‘Aes Sedai’ organisation, who embarks on a quest to find The Dragon Reborn, a mythical figure prophesied to fight The Dark One – possibly breaking the world in the process.
Rafe Judkins (Agents of SHIELD) will showrun with Sony Pictures TV co-producing the series. Westworld and Jessica Jones director Uta Briesewitz will helm the first two episodes of The Wheel of Time. Pike will also produce the series while Harriet McDougal, Jordan’s widow, will be a consulting producer for the adaptation.
“For so many people, including me, this book series has served as a world to escape to, to lose yourself in, to devour and inhabit completely,” added Judkins. “And I couldn’t be more honored to be the one finally bringing that world to life on screen, for old fans to lose themselves in all over again and new fans to discover for the very first time.”
The rights to The Wheel of Time were first picked up by NBC back in 2000 before passing on to Red Eagle in 2004. The latter produced Winter Dragon, a 22-minute “pilot” which aired on FXX in 2015, before the rights reverted to the Robert Jordan Estate in 2016.
