Some Very Bad News For ‘Wheel Of Time’ Season 4 As Amazon Does The Unthinkable
The Wheel Of Time
The Wheel Of Time was just starting to get good, so naturally Amazon decided to cancel the fantasy series. Season 3 will be its final season. The news comes after declining viewership numbers, even as critic and fan reception of the third season was better than ever.
Season 1 got off to a pretty rough start, but Season 2 – for all its flaws – was a major improvement, and Season 3 was genuinely good fantasy television, even though it continued to make drastic changes from the source material.
Season 3 was so good, in fact, that it inspired me to continue reading the Robert Jordan novels, a series I had a really hard time getting into. And while it’s obvious that the books and the show diverged in too many ways to list, I appreciated that the third season actually made for great TV. This is in stark contrast to the steaming pile of orc manure that is Amazon’s other big fantasy show, The Rings Of Power.
For whatever reason – pride, perhaps – Amazon has renewed Rings Of Power despite its massive decline in viewership, while cancelling the wildly superior Wheel Of Time. Truly, I will never understand the decisions these streaming executives make.
Sure, there are many ways that Wheel Of Time could have been better. While there was no feasible way to stick to the letter of the source material, a lot of the changes were definitely questionable, even in Season 3. Obviously, it would have been great if the first season had been stronger so that more fans stuck around as the show improved. But the cast was really starting to come into its own by Season 3, and all the talented actors and design team that made Season 3 the strongest yet deserved a chance at making Season 4 and beyond. Not finishing the story is a real slap in the face to all the loyal fans who did stick around.
Perhaps live-action is not the best way to adapt these long, ultimately very expensive, fantasy epics. An animated Wheel Of Time, for instance, could stick closer to the source material while costing a fraction of what a live-action series costs. Amazon’s best fantasy series, The Legend Of Vox Machina, proves that you can do a lot more with fantasy when it’s animated while still capturing all the life and action and magic of the story.
The Wheel Of Time series was adapted for thes creen by showrunner Rafe Judkins based on the novels by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. It starred Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred, Daniel Henney as al’Lan Mandragoran, Josha Stradowski as Rand al’Thor, Zoë Robins as Nynaeve al’Meara, Madeleine Madden as Egwene al’Vere, Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, Dónal Finn as Mat Cauthon, and Ceara Coveney as Elayne Trakand.
At least we still have the books. Speaking of fantasy novels, read my review of Joe Abercrombie’s latest release, The Devils, right here. Abercrombie’s First Law series would make for great TV, but I would prefer an animated show to another lackluster attempt at live-action fantasy.