If you're at all aware of Robert Jordan's high fantasy book series, The Wheel of Time, you probably know one thing: it's a long, long series. But Amazon wants to eventually cover the whole thing with its TV adaptation, even the prequel.
In an interview with IGN, Amazon Studios co-head of TV Vernon Sanders said the company is currently focused on the present, but would love for the series to eventually span all 14 Wheel of Time books and the prequel.
"Our ideal is to work with [showrunner] Rafe [Judkin] and the team on the full thing," he said. "Obviously that's a ways down the road. So we're focused on where we are right now. And Rafe and the team have just shared the first few episodes of season two, and I wish I could get those out to everyone right away. They're just, they're great."
Wheel of Time was renewed for a second season earlier this year, before the first season had even debuted. Sanders attributes this to Judkins's strong pitch and work on the show up to that point:
"That was just based on the creative conviction and Rafe's work on season one, and his pitch and layout for season two and beyond was so compelling that we had every confidence that we had a show that people would love and a show that demanded to go on," he said. "So this is all confirmation of our instincts, but it really is all credit to Rafe and the work that they're doing."
Sanders also tells us that the first three episodes of the show "did very well" in terms of viewership and that new episodes since have had "incredible growth" with "hundreds of millions of streams" worldwide for the series. He also repeatedly mentioned "high, high completion rates," saying that Wheel of Time ranked "very high" for an Amazon series so far in terms of viewers continuing to watch the series after they had begun it.
Our review of the first three episodes of Wheel of Time found it "gorgeous, well acted, and strongly written" with a good understanding of the source material that wasn't loyal to excess. We were a little less thrilled about the most recent episode, but with the finale debuting this week we can hope that it ties the season together in a way that'll leave us wanting the rest of the 14-book saga to get a chance.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
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In an interview with IGN, Amazon Studios co-head of TV Vernon Sanders said the company is currently focused on the present, but would love for the series to eventually span all 14 Wheel of Time books and the prequel.
"Our ideal is to work with [showrunner] Rafe [Judkin] and the team on the full thing," he said. "Obviously that's a ways down the road. So we're focused on where we are right now. And Rafe and the team have just shared the first few episodes of season two, and I wish I could get those out to everyone right away. They're just, they're great."
Wheel of Time was renewed for a second season earlier this year, before the first season had even debuted. Sanders attributes this to Judkins's strong pitch and work on the show up to that point:
"That was just based on the creative conviction and Rafe's work on season one, and his pitch and layout for season two and beyond was so compelling that we had every confidence that we had a show that people would love and a show that demanded to go on," he said. "So this is all confirmation of our instincts, but it really is all credit to Rafe and the work that they're doing."
Sanders also tells us that the first three episodes of the show "did very well" in terms of viewership and that new episodes since have had "incredible growth" with "hundreds of millions of streams" worldwide for the series. He also repeatedly mentioned "high, high completion rates," saying that Wheel of Time ranked "very high" for an Amazon series so far in terms of viewers continuing to watch the series after they had begun it.
Our review of the first three episodes of Wheel of Time found it "gorgeous, well acted, and strongly written" with a good understanding of the source material that wasn't loyal to excess. We were a little less thrilled about the most recent episode, but with the finale debuting this week we can hope that it ties the season together in a way that'll leave us wanting the rest of the 14-book saga to get a chance.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
Continue reading...