‘Fourth Wing’ TV Series Finds Its Violet & Xaden: Meet the Leads
Riders, Fourth Wing is officially flying to our screens! After a long search, Violet and Xaden have officially landed at Basgiath War College. We finally know who will play the romantasy power couple.
Years after Amazon MGM first announced that it had secured the rights to Rebecca Yarros’ mega-hit romantasy novel, the series has been ordered to Prime Video. Amazon has been working with Michael B. Jordan‘s Outlier Society to develop the Fourth Wing TV show, which will bring Basgiath War College and its world of dragons and high-stakes action to the screen. In a January 2026 interview with Deadline, Jordan assured fans that confirmed that the project is “going to be an exciting show that delivers on all of the things the fans want and some of the things that they won’t be expecting either.”
Jordan has quite a few fans hoping he’ll deliver on his promise. Fourth Wing became a TikTok sensation after its debut release in April 2023. So, we’re breaking down everything else we know about the adaptation so far below, including the team that Jordan has assembled to bring the book to life.
Who has been cast in the Fourth Wing TV show?
Esther McGregor will play Violet Sorrengail, per Deadline. The actress, who is the daughter of Ewan McGregor, had a breakout role in We Were Liars Season 1 as Mirren. German actor and singer Emilio Sakraya will play Xaden Riorson. The 30-year-old is known for his roles in Rhinegold and Warrior Nun. Before suiting up as Xaden, he’ll be playing Koza in the third season of One Piece.
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Yarros previously said she only has one casting requirement for the series, which is that they don’t whitewash Xaden Riorson. “The second I say who I think this character is, that’s who everyone will accept, and only who they will accept,” Yarros said in a fan Q&A in October 2024. “I kind of hope they find an up-and-coming generation.”
Yarros herself will executive-produce alongside Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy, who will also direct the first episode of Fourth Wing. Locke & Key co-creator Meredith Averill will serve as showrunner. Outlier president Elizabeth Raposo and Kilter Film’s Jonathan Nolan and Athena Wickham. Liz Pelletier and Sherryl Clark are also exec-producing for Premeditated Productions, the sister company to Fourth Wing publisher Entangled Publishing. Outlier Society’s Stefano Agosto will co-executive produce.
In April 2025, a reporter asked Josh Heuston about the casting rumors. “You have to ask the scribes, I suppose,” he said at the time. It’s worthy to note that Heuston starred in the first season of Prime Video’s Off Campus and will star in the streamer’s Throttled movie adaptation.
Swooon brought up the idea of Kyle Allen playing Dain in the adaptation to Allen himself. “I’ll ride a dragon,” he said before adding, “I will be part of that project under one condition, and it is if they have real dragons to ride.”
The Fourth Wing fandom has also been abuzz about Danny Griffin. The Fate: The Winx Saga star posted a photo of himself reading Iron Flame while hanging upside down in a stunt contraption of some sort. Thousands flocked to the comments, wondering if it was hinting at his participation in the adaptation. A fair portion of them hope he’ll portray Liam.
What is the status of the Fourth Wing TV show?
Prime Video hasn’t announced when the first season will begin filming, but we’re getting closer with this casting news. Fourth Wing got an official series order in May 2026.
Amazon MGM announced the adaptation in October 2023 after the conclusion of the writers’ strike. “We are making sure that this is going to be [an] exciting show that delivers on all of the things the fans want and some of the things that they won’t be expecting either,” Jordan told Deadline in January 2026.
“But trust me, I know how beloved this franchise IP is, and we’re diligently… We’re in the lab, we’re cooking up. We got it. It’s coming. It’s early stages, but I feel how much people care about this one. It’s not lost on us.”
What is Fourth Wing about?
Fourth Wing is set at Basgiath War College in the fictional kingdom of Navarre. Every young person in the kingdom attends Basgiath under one of the four quadrants: riders, healers, scribes, and infantry. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail always expected to go into the scribe quadrant and follow in her late father’s studious footsteps, but six months before Conscription Day, her mother says that Violet will instead be joining the deadly riders quadrant like her older siblings. The book begins on Violet’s first day, surviving the harrowing parapet entrance exam and being thrust into a training program that will test everything she knows about her kingdom and her own strength.
On the one hand, Violet has her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, looking out for her and a group of instantly loyal best friends. On the other hand, she’s also under the watchful eye of Xaden Riorson, the son of a former Navarre opposition leader, who hates everything Violet represents. Violet needs every resource and cunning trick in the book to make it through her first year at Basgiath and join the war effort against Poromiel. She also has to figure out how to ride a dragon without dying. No big deal!
Will the show cover the entire Empyrean series?
That’s to be determined! According to Deadline, who first reported that Fourth Wing was being adapted into a TV show, there’s “potential for each book in Yarros’ series to be developed into its own separate TV project.” This is interesting because Fourth Wing leads directly into the sequel novel Iron Flame, but the outlet makes it sound like the second book could be its own show. The same would be true for Onyx Storm, which was released on January 21, 2025. Yarros is also prepping two additional books to wrap up Violet’s story.
Fourth Wing, Season 1, TBA, Prime Video
