The following is a preview of Amazon Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time Season 2.
When: Friday, September 1
Where: Amazon Prime Video
How Many: Eight episodes (the first three will premiere on September 1)
Premise: Plot line will be taken mostly from Book 2 The Great Hunt but may also contain material from Book 1 Eye of the World and Book 3 The Dragon Reborn.
Old Cast: Largely the same. Barney Harris (who played Mat Cauthon) famously left the set after six episodes. He’s been replaced by Donal Finn.
New Cast: Ceara Coveney will play Elayne Trakand, while Ayoola Smart has been cast for Aviendha. Other additions are Maja Simonsen as Chiad, Ragga Ragnars as Bain, Jay Duffy as Dain Bornhald, and Rima Te Wiata as Sheriam Bayanar. Meera Syal and Natasha O’Keeffe are also joining in important but undisclosed roles.
Where Season 1 Took Us: In the first season of The Wheel of Time, we were introduced to the Edmond’s Field kids — Rand, Mat, Perrin Aybara, Nynaeve al’Meara, and Egwene al’Vere. Brought together by Aes Sedai Moiraine Damodred and her Warder al’Lan Mandragoran, the group was forced to leave the Two Rivers when the Dark One sent Trollocs and Fades to capture them.
The reason? Because one of them is the Dragon Reborn — the Dark One’s antithesis.
Although the group starts off together, they’re forced apart shortly after visiting the cursed remains of Shadar Logoth. From there Rand and Mat team up with the gleeman Thom Merrilin. They flee to the city of Whitebridge. While they continue on the way to Caemlyn in the novel, in the show they next make straight for Tar Valon.
In another departure from the book, Egwene and Perrin don’t meet up with Elyas Machera. Instead, they go straight to their encounter with the Children of the Light. But, after a bit of torturing, they’re saved by Moiraine, Lan, and Nynaeve, who shepherd the pair to Tar Valon and a reunion with the others.
Wheel of Time Season 2
In Tar Valon, Loial is introduced. He’s an Ogier, a species of anthropoid, who enjoys reading and pursuing historical studies. Also presented is Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat, who is the head of the Aes Sedai. Siuan and Moiraine realize the kids from the Two Rivers are special, that they can cause events to bend around them like ta’veren. Also, that one of them is the Dragon Reborn. But to figure out which one it is, they devise a plan for the group to go north. There they’ll meet with the Green Man. This encounter, they hope, will cause one of them to channel and thus settle the question.
Unfortunately, once the group arrives in the borderland of Shienar, the enemy advances, sending a host of Trollocs and Fades at them. But before the attack is made, Moiraine and Rand escape and set off on their own. While they don’t find the Green Man as planned, Rand is nonetheless revealed. In an encounter with one of the Dark One’s top lieutenants, Rand exerts his power and is thus named. Moiraine, meanwhile, doesn’t fare as well, being separated from her powers and left on her own.
Where Season 2 Will Take Us: It’s no surprise that season 2 will see Rand begin to explore his powers. And be tested because of them. It’ll also properly introduce us to the Seanchan. They were the seafarers who made quite the splash at the end of season 1. Above all else, however, the hunt will be on for the Horn of Valere, an item from the Age of Legends that will signal the coming of the Great Battle.
- THE GOOD
- THE BAD
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- Essential
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