Adapting The Wheel of Time from the book series into a TV show was undoubtedly a monumental task. Having first been published over 30 years ago, there are now 14 books in the franchise, not to mention a global fanbase who hold this tale incredibly close to their hearts.
Yet, the Amazon Prime Video TV series has captured the magic of author Robert Jordan’s imagination with full force, welcoming viewers into a world brimming with sorcery, action, emotion and a high-stakes battle between light and darkness led by the formidable Rosamund Pike.
The Wheel of Time follows Rosamund’s character, Moiraine, who is the member of a powerful organisation called the Aes Sedai.
The Aes Sedai is made up of women with the ability to use magic – called the One Power – with Moiraine using her talents to seek out a prophesied individual known as the ‘Dragon reborn’, who is believed will either save the world or destroy it.
While neither she nor her right-hand man Lan (Daniel Henney) have any idea who this person is, nor whether they have been reborn as a girl or a boy, there are five potential candidates who have recently come of age, all hailing from the same historic village.
Offering very little information about the path that lies before them, Moiraine takes these young people under her wing as they embark on a dangerous and turbulent quest to reach the White Tower, the heart of the Aes Sedai.
While The Wheel of Time has been compared to Game of Thrones ahead of its launch, the only similarity between the two shows is the epic scale that viewers can expect and the fact that they both lie within the fantasy genre.
Other than that, The Wheel of Time is its own entrancing entity, championing women as the ones who hold power across the land and introducing viewers to new concepts surrounding magic and adventurous storytelling.
Right from the very first episode of The Wheel of Time, director Uta Briesewitz waves her wand to create some spectacular sequences, setting the bar for what’s to come as the series progresses.