Binge Amazon’s Other Big-Budget Fantasy Series Before The New Season
Amazon’s Rings of Power may have grabbed all the headlines with its eye-popping budget dwarfing major movie productions, but it’s not the only high-brow fantasy series on the streaming service. Destined to always be a bridesmaid, like the series it’s adapting, is The Wheel of Time, which has flown under the radar. That could change soon, with Season 3 set to arrive on March 25, 2025, and given how much of an improvement Season 2 was, this could finally be the show’s breakout year.
Bringing The Hit Novels To Life
The Wheel of Time faces the daunting task of adapting the extensive work of Robert Jordan, which includes over 18 novels with hundreds of characters and covering centuries of story. Season 1 focused mainly on the first novel, The Eye of the World, and the gradual introduction of how big the world is and the importance of the One Power. Trying to summarize the events of the novel makes anyone sound crazy, but the Amazon series tried, and for the most part, it hit the mark.
Focused on Rosamund Pike’s Moiraine, The Wheel of Time Season 1 tries to slowly explain the complex world that Robert Jordan filled with intricate details, and even the smallest of them manages to be important down the road, but it didn’t have the action of Lord of the Rings, or the violence of Game of Thrones. Instead, the rise of Rand al’Thor, the reincarnation of the Dragon, a male channeler that can utilize the One Power to defeat the Dark One, scared away casual viewers while changes from the novel, sometimes significant, angered the hardcore fans of Jordan’s novels.
The Wheel Of Time Keeps Getting Better
Despite the no-win scenario that the cast and crew found themselves in, The Wheel of Time looks gorgeous on screen and, in some cases, superior to the larger budget of The Rings of Power. Season 2, which mashes together The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn, proved that those willing to watch closely and engage with the carefully constructed world would be rewarded. The pace picks up, everything looks bigger and better, the characters have more to do, and it’s plain fun seeing some of the wilder characters and concepts, like Lanfear and The Forsaken, brought to life for the first time.
While The Rings of Power improved in Season 2, it’s still hampered by being a prequel, while The Wheel of Time still has over a dozen books worth of material to explore, even if a few of them, notably the tenth book, Crossroads of Twilight, is the equivalent of an anime filler episode. If Season 3 improves by even half as much as Season 2 did compared to the first, even non-fans will have to start paying attention. Amazon hasn’t committed to any more seasons beyond the third, but that could change at any minute.
Even without a fourth season, The Wheel of Time Season 3, which introduces The Waste, gets to bring The Shadow Rising to screens, including, hopefully, more of Rand utilizing his power and less of taking a backseat to Moiraine. No matter which way the series goes, it remains, quietly, one of the best fantasy shows on the air today.
The Wheel of Time is now streaming on Prime Video.
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