The Wheel of Time is one of the most epic fantasy series ever written. It spans between 14 and 17 books, depending on how you count, and each volume averages 826 pages. There are 2782 distinct, named characters in the series. At the back of each book is a list of characters with descriptions for reference.
The numbers are gaudy, but perhaps do not even bespeak the complexity of the task before those charged with adapting this epic for the small (or really medium these days, TVs are getting huge) screen. That many characters translates into dozens of different *groups* of characters, each with richly developed histories.
I love this series so much that I actually had trouble sitting down to watch it because I was so worried it was going to stink and crush me. I was talking about the difficulty of adapting this work with friends 10-15 years ago. I made outlines for possible approaches for pitch meetings I never had a shot to land. I really want this to be good!
I wrote briefly about the potential difficulties a month or so back, but I’ve now watched the first six episodes, and I’m happy to report that at the very least, the boat has been successfully launched off the dock. They’re headed for the open ocean and large swells are predicted, but the choices they’ve made so far have given me faith they know how to navigate.
The basic (like, really basic) premise is that we’re in a high-fantasy world, swords and sorcery, classic stuff, and there’s a prophecy about The Dragon Reborn, who will fight The Dark One and save the world. There’s a witch called Moiraine who is looking for The Dragon Reborn and she thinks she finds this person in a small mountain town. And she’s right, but a lot of people don’t like that and get very mad about it.
But so what the TV adaptation has done very well so far is stick with that, and throw tons of stuff out that isn’t directly related to that premise in favor of setting up these central characters and just a couple of strategic secondary ones. It’s disciplined and conservative and correct as an approach.
Then they’ve also done a bunch of really bold and liberal and interesting things with the execution choices in writing and production. They cast colorblind, for example, which just works so well in a high fantasy setting like this. In this world, all these people from this same little mountain town are different colors, and it works fine. Who ever thought this was a problem?!
They’ve also liberalized the sexual politics quite a bit from the books, but they’ve done it in a way that doesn’t feel preachy or cloying. When they added a lesbian relationship, it was in a way that really *mattered* and heightened a scene and changed the course of things. Nothing feels gratuitous.
Besides being satisfyingly diverse, it’s also just well-cast. The ensemble works together, and while there’s not time for many huge acting moments, nobody is bad enough or showy enough to slow down what really is the star of the show in both the books and the movie, which is the world and the exquisite, insistent satisfaction of how the story unfolds within it.
When I was talking with my friend about the challenge of adaptation over a decade ago, the one sure thing was that the beginning was the easy part. The first book is more expansive than the show so far, but it’s still fairly contained. From there, the scope just widens, and widens, and widens, like one of those “scale of the universe” videos on youtube where we zoom out until the Milky Way is a dot on the map.
I was going to make a huge list to end this post with, of the many many plot elements and characters left to come, to illustrate how monumental the task ahead of the writers is, but I got overwhelmed just trying to make the list, and that’s perhaps illustration enough. If they average a book a season (which would be a fast pace) and if they only use the 14 main books (which it seems they must), that’s still 14 seasons of television to finish this whole series. I hope they have a plan and Jeff Bezos writes them a check for a billion dollars from his space yacht and they go do it, because I can confidently say that if the entire series of books can be realized at the quality of these first six episodes, then The Wheel of Time is going to be the greatest television show ever made.
So I recommend you jump on board. Or wait—they’re going to be at it for quite a while!
Next week I will send you the 26th story in my project. That’s an entire year’s worth. I’ll be doing a year-end wrap up post the week after that, but I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who is reading me, and especially my all-star readers who have been here since the beginning. It’s been such a creative adventure and a pleasure to write these, and I’m looking forward to doing it for many years to come.