Background In 2000,
NBC optioned the screen rights to
Robert Jordan's fantasy novel series
The Wheel of Time but did not ultimately proceed with the production. Subsequently, the company sued Jordan's widow, Harriet McDougal, for her comments about the pilot; the lawsuit was settled in 2016. In April 2016, McDougal announced that a major studio was undergoing contract negotiations for production on a TV series.
Development A new adaptation of the series was announced on April 20, 2017, produced by
Sony Pictures Television in association with Red Eagle Entertainment and Radar Pictures.
Rafe Judkins was expected to serve as
showrunner for the series and executive produce alongside Rick Selvage, Larry Mondragon,
Ted Field, Mike Weber,
Lauren Selig and
Darren Lemke. McDougal was set to serve as a consulting producer. By October 2018, the series had been in development for a year, and
Amazon Studios had agreed to produce it. In January 2019, Judkins announced that two additional writers, Michael and Paul Clarkson, had joined the production's writing team. By April 2019, Kelly Valentine Hendry had been attached as casting director. In June 2019, it was announced that Rosamund Pike, who portrays Moiraine Damodred, would also serve as a producer.
Brandon Sanderson, who had completed the book series following Robert Jordan's death, was also confirmed to be serving as consulting producer along with McDougal. On various occasions, Sanderson wrote about his contributions to the production, which he described as "reading the scripts and offering feedback directly to Rafe, the showrunner". Judkins has said that Maria Simons, a long-time editorial assistant to Robert Jordan and McDougal, also provides feedback on scripts. The lead characters from Emond's Field were written as older than their book counterparts. The production team thought that television shows with seventeen-year-old lead characters could feel like young adult fiction, which was not a genre they felt was suitable for the series.
Uta Briesewitz was confirmed as the director of the first two episodes in February 2019.
Salli Richardon-Whitfield was confirmed to be directing episodes five and six in November 2019, and
Wayne Yip was confirmed to be directing episodes three and four in December. The director of episodes seven and eight,
Ciaran Donnelly, was revealed in February 2020. On May 20, 2021, Amazon renewed the series for a second season ahead of the series premiere. The script for the second season's first episode was posted in May 2021, six months before the series' premiere. Thomas Napper, Maja Vrvilo, and
Sanaa Hamri have been reported to be directing episodes of the second season, with Hamri directing half of the season and serving as an executive producer. The second season combined elements from both
The Great Hunt (1990) and
The Dragon Reborn (1991), the second and third books in the series. On July 21, 2022, ahead of the second-season premiere, Amazon renewed the series for a third season. The third season covers the fourth and fifth books,
The Shadow Rising (1992) and
The Fires of Heaven (1993).
Casting stars as
Moiraine Damodred.
Rosamund Pike was cast as the lead Moiraine in June 2019. Further main cast members were announced in August 2019:
Daniel Henney as
Lan Mandragoran,
Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor, Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara,
Zoë Robins as
Nynaeve al'Meara,
Barney Harris as
Mat Cauthon, and
Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere. Irish actor
Daryl McCormack was said to have been cast in an undisclosed role in mid-November 2019, later revealed to be the role of Aram. Several more main cast members were announced in December 2019: Alexandre Willaume as Thom Merrilin, Johann Myers as Padan Fain, Hammed Animashaun as Loial,
Alvaro Morte as Logain Ablar,
Priyanka Bose as Alanna Mosvani, Taylor Napier as Maksim, and Emmanuel Imani as Ivhon. In January 2020,
Kate Fleetwood posted on her
Instagram page that she had been cast to play the role of Liandrin Guirale. In March 2020, Jen Cheon Garcia announced that she had been cast as Leane Sharif. In June 2020, eight additional roles were announced:
Lolita Chakrabarti as Marin Al'Vere, Michael Tuahine as Bran Al'Vere, David Sterne as Cenn Buie, Christopher Sciueref as Abell Cauthon, Juliet Howland as Natti Cauthon, Mandi Symonds as Daise Conger,
Abdul Salis as Eamon Valda, and
Stuart Graham as Geofram Bornhald. In July 2020, Darren Clarke was revealed to be playing the role of Basel Gill. That same month,
Maria Doyle Kennedy and Narinder Samra were cast as Illa and Raen, respectively. In September 2021, it was announced that
Barney Harris would not be returning for the second season and that
Dónal Finn would be playing the role of Mat going forward. In October 2021, Ceara Coveney,
Natasha O'Keeffe and
Meera Syal joined the cast as series regulars for the second season, with Coveney confirmed to be playing the role of Elayne Trakand. In December 2021, three recurring cast members were announced: Guys Roberts as Uno Nomesta, Arnas Fedaravicius as Masema Dagar, and Gregg Chillingirian as Ingtar Shinowa. The role of Ingtar was originally to be played by
Amar Chadha-Patel, but due to scheduling conflicts his role was changed to "Lord Yakota". Thomas Chaanhing was confirmed for the role of Lord Agelmar and Sanra Yi Sencindiver was confirmed for the role of Lady Amalisa. In April 2022, it was announced that Ayoola Smart would play the role of Aviendha. In December 2024, it was reported that
Shohreh Aghdashloo would be portraying
Elaida a'Roihan in season three. The casting of
Olivia Williams as Morgase Trakand,
Luke Fetherston as Gawyn Trakand,
Callum Kerr as Galad Trakand, and
Nuno Lopes as Lord Gaebril was announced later that month.
Filming Season 1 Table reads with the cast had begun by early October 2019.
Principal photography for the first season started on September 16, 2019. Filming in
Prague was halted in March 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic but had resumed by April 2021 and concluded in May 2021. Jordan Studios in Prague, constructed for the production, served as the primary production base. Other filming locations included parts of the Czech Republic;
Dubrovnik, Croatia;
Segovia, Spain; Slovenia; and the Canary Islands. Judkins has said that shooting in the Canary Islands was intended to be more extensive, but "because of COVID-19 we were not able to do that. It had been scouted, so we sent our drone and visual effects teams to build where we were going to go into a 3D digital world that we could then put our actors into." In a behind-the-scenes video, Ciaran Donnelly, who directed the first-season finale, said that scenes taking place in the Blight were supposed to be shot on
Gomera, but COVID restrictions prevented traveling there. Filming in the Czech Republic qualified the production for the Czech Film Fund's incentive program, making available CZK 352million (US $16.3million) in incentives. Filming in Slovenia similarly qualified the production for tax incentives of $314 thousand. Prague's Z Molu Es Kennel provided
wolfdogs for the production between October 2019 and February 2020.
Season 2 Filming for the second season began on July 19, 2021, and filming in Prague was scheduled to conclude by February 2022.
Jindřichův Hradec,
Calanchi Di Aliano,
Ginosa,
Letohrádek Hvězda,
Barrandov Studios, CLA Studios in
Ouarzazate, Morocco, Masseria Lo Spagnulo, Masseria Borzone, and
Chateau Karlova Koruna were reported as filming locations, along with Jordan Studios in Prague. More than 500 of the production crew's 600 members are reported to be residents of the Czech Republic. and South Africa. Filming concluded on March 22, 2024.
Music Showrunner Rafe Judkins said that for the soundtrack he "did not want to be what the cliché is, i.e., typical, what one would expect of that genre". Composer
Lorne Balfe instead referred to "a big hot pot of different styles" such as
Balinese,
Celtic, Southern, and
Cajun, feeling that it was important to give the soundtrack more modern touches and "not to make it just traditional 'medieval folk music'". The album contained fourteen tracks that were largely conceptual but contained key themes that spawned variations in the final score.
The Wheel of Time: Season 2, Volume 1 was released on September 8, 2023, and
The Wheel of Time: Season 2, Volume 2 was released on September 22, 2023.
Visual effects In early 2020, Julian Perry was attached to the series as Overall Visual Effects Supervisor. Special effects company
Cinesite was revealed to be working on the visual effects of the series in April 2020. Additional VFX work was done by MPC Episodic, Outpost VFX, Automatik VFX, Union VFX, RISE,
DNEG,
Framestore,
Scanline, Zelda VFX, and Ombrium VFX. In an interview, Perry discussed how the challenging nature of the show and a more limited post-production period resulting from the
2020 production halt required them to work with a large number of VFX studios to "help spread workload". ==Release==