Rosamund Pike & ‘The Wheel of Time’ Team on That Showdown, Season 3 & Adapting the Book (VIDEO)

Wheel of Time Coloring Book

$14.99

Buy Now

Now that The Wheel of Time‘s third season is up and rolling on Prime Video, can we talk about that mind-blowing White Tower throwdown?!

Prime Video

After two seasons of scheming against her own sisterhood, the magic-channeling Aes Sedai, villainous Liandrin (Kate Fleetwood) faced a tribunal overseen by Siuan (Sophie Okonedo), the Amerlyn Seat of the sect. But instead of facing up to her fealty to the Dark One, Liandrin mobilized her fellow traitorous Black Ajahs and shizzz went down.

“We’ve been working on this for such a long time and we were so excited, even from the writing phase, about getting to put up this set piece that can really only be in The Wheel of Time,” admits showrunner Rafe Judkins of the spell-weaving, wall-crumbling, Aes-kicking spectacle. “And so having it out in the world now and people starting to see it is just really exciting.”

Prime Video

As fans know, this season is an adaptation of Shadow Rising, the fourth book in Robert Jordan’s sprawling high fantasy series, but they can also expect a few surprises beyond this incendiary event (hello, Andorian royalty!) that launches a series of storylines. “We’re never going to contain ourselves in just one book,” Judkins happily confesses, adding that while “there’s a lot of scenes from the book — it’s one of my favorite books of the series — we still have stuff that we’ve saved from previous books.”

Ahead of the new season, fellow EP and star Rosamund Pike joined Judkins, Okenedo, Josha Stradowski (Rand), Dónal Finn (Mat), Daniel Henney (Lan), Ceara Coveney (Elayne), Ayoola Smart (Aviendah),  Marcus Rutherford (Perrin) and Natasha O’Keefe (Lanfear) for a day of discussing the show and what we can look forward to. (Watch the video above.)

As Stradowski’s newly minted Dragon Reborn begins to accept his powers as the reincarnated spirit who will either save the world or end it, his friends (and foes) will be drawn into their own quests. Thankfully, we get some long-overdue ensemble scenes before that, which serve as a reminder of all these kids from Two Rivers have been through.

Prime Video

“It’s dreamy, right?” agrees the increasingly strapping actor of the gang’s reunion. “It’s very nostalgic when we all get together in that scene in Tar Valon with all of us…We really enjoyed it and then thought this is the only time we’re ever going to be together for the whole season!”

By the premiere’s end, that proves all too true and in the first three episodes already out, it becomes very clear that even more action (and romance) awaits. Especially now that Rand’s mentor Moiraine and former lover-slash-dream-invading entity, Lanfear, both think they know what’s best for him.

Prime Video

“I think Moiraine knows that Lanfear is stronger than her and can’t be trusted, but she’s always buoyed along by this idea that before the Breaking [of the world, when men could control magic], Lanfear loved the Dragon Reborn,” clarifies Pike. “And that is the one thing that she feels she can trust, that she won’t want to kill him.”

Related

New 'Wheel of Time' Photo Hints at New Quests and Old Foes

“As long as Moiraine trusts that Lanfear doesn’t want to kill Rand, then perhaps she can try and work with her to some degree,” Pike continues with a laugh. “[That] is revealed to be a pretty bad idea at the end of Episode 1 when things get very out of control.”