‘Wheel of Time’ Season 2: Five Teasers Dropped By the Showrunners

We might not know when the Season 2 of The Wheel of Time is coming out, but here are 5 tidbits we do know.

We still don’t know the whole tone of The Wheel of Time season 2. For instance, we have no idea when it will come out. We got some cool mysteries the other week, but not a whole ton of groundbreaking information. To try to glean some information we’ve looked at some recent interviews that the Wheel of Time season 2 showrunners have given. Here are five interesting things we’ve learned from them.

The Wheel Of Time Adapts a Lot Per Episode

via Amazon Studios and EW

Adapting a big book series is never an easy task. But some shows have it harder than others. Condensing a lot of books into a short number of episodes can be a real struggle. This is something Wheel of Time season 2 showrunner Rafe Judkins talked about in his December interview.

According to him each episode of The Wheel of Time adapts roughly 200 pages of the novels (this is an average if they get to the whole show/story). This can be a real struggle to get the story into a season and has led to some of the major cuts. In contrast, Rafe claims that series like Game of Thrones only adapts about 50 pages an episode.

This is obviously a bit of rough math. The Eye of the World, which season 1 of The Wheel of Time adapted has 782 pages and was done in 8 episodes, so that’s an average of 97.75 pages an episode. A Game of Thornes, which the first season of GoT adapted 694 pages, so its ten episodes averaged 69.4 pages per episode. Not as big a difference as 50 vs 200 yet, but still a significate difference. Season two of WoT however is combing two books and its episodes will average about 170 pages per episode. Whatever the exact numbers are it’s clear this is a real challenge.

 The Showrunners are Looking Forward to Introducing This Character

During a JordanCon interview, Rafe was asked what character they are looking forward to seeing in later seasons. He told viewers that he was looking forward to seeing Elaida. This powerful Aes Sedia plays a major role in the books. As one of the top Aes Sedia, her influence is felt by most of the main characters.

In the books, she shows up in The Eye of the World. However, she was cut from season 1. Based on this wording its not clear she’s going to show up in season 2, and with no casting announcement for her it seems she’s being pushed even farther back.

A Tidbit About Spears

While not telling us a ton about the plot, this is a fun tidbit about season 2. It seems like everyone really really likes the Aiel spears. We learned this during the JordonCon interview. There a large number of the cast said these would be the one prop they would steal if they could. I like that that people playing the Aiel got enough into character as Maidens-Of-The-Spear to like them that much. It’s always good when actors care about the roles they are playing.

The Showrunners Have Confirmed the Bad Guys Are Losing Their Texan Accent

via Amazon

The Seanchan are set to be one of the main enemies of season 2 of the Wheel of Time. In the books they show up in Book Two as enemies, They then spend the rest of the series acting both as enemies and allies at times. Before his death, the book author Robert Jordan confirmed on several occasions these fearsome invaders have a Texan accent (in the books it’s often described as a drawl). Sadly the showrunners have said that this won’t be in the show, but there might be some nods to it.

The Showrunners Claim That Brander Sanderson Was Down With Combining Books

We’ve known for a bit now that season 2 of The Wheel of Time would cover both books 2 and 3. Some fans have found this choice controversial. However, showrunner Rafe confirmed the idea didn’t just come from him. In the December interview, he said:

“For season 2 especially, when I first talked to Brandon Sanderson about the show and my worries about the overall adaptation, I was like one thing I’m thinking about is that books 2 and 3 both have the same narrative arcs essentially of landing with Rand and a confrontation with a man we’ll realize is Ishamael evidently, like how do we… you can’t do that in television 2 seasons in a row, because that doesn’t work in that context, and he said the same thing. ‘No you have to combine the two, because even though there are these incredible stories in both those books, if you told it sequentially like that it would sort of break down.’”

Brandon Sanderson took over writing the final Wheel of Time books after Robert Jordan’s death. While not a showrunner himself, he’s one of the top living WoT experts, and having him agree to this change does show how much it was needed.

Let us know what your thoughts on the upcoming season are, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.