Wheel of Time TV series to actually happen

[t209]

http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Tuon
Well, consider the new Ghost in the Shell.
How many of you are in doubt over Tuon being cast as black lady?

Spoiler: Novel Spoiler

Show

Also a bald one when she became an empress.

[Seerow]

http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Tuon
Well, consider the new Ghost in the Shell.
How many of you are in doubt over Tuon being cast as black lady?

Spoiler: Novel Spoiler

Show

Also a bald one when she became an empress.

Frankly Tuon is so far in the future I'm not even worrying about it. Though I suppose I could wish that her character shows up around events in book 2 instead of waiting all the way until like book 7.

[MikelaC1]

I cant see this working because the series is simply too long. Each book has so much content that it would be a season on its own, and by that you're looking at a series that would last over 10 years. I cant see an audience hanging with a story for that long, especially one in which you can just pick up the final book and see how it all ends. Game of Thrones hasnt even come close to that length and even it has moved out of the books. And imagine if the ratings arent there and they have to cancel after doing book 4 or 5, that would be a most unsatisfying end.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Honestly as much as I doubt it'll happen, I hope it ends up a CG/animated series, rather than live action.


Also, the cast aging up as seasons go on would be a good thing IMO, provided the wrote the adaptation to account for it. All of the book events taking place over the span of 3 years (with 2 years of that happening in the first few books) always felt wrong to me. Then again, events rushing to a head faster than anyone could have anticipated is kind of the point. I dunno, I'm torn.

On the bright side, unlike with Game of Thrones, none of the main cast is actually children, and age differentials simply aren't as profound once you get out of the child/early teen age range.

If I were in charge, I would have The world of Dreams be CG animation, the live world being live..and Flashbacks to Stories of the past Animated by Genndy Tartakovsky.

>.> Yes that last would basically be "I want Genndy Tartakovsky to animate Moraine's story about the Fall of Manatheran from the first book because that would be sweeeeet"

[Reddish Mage]

I cant see this working because the series is simply too long. Each book has so much content that it would be a season on its own, and by that you're looking at a series that would last over 10 years. I cant see an audience hanging with a story for that long, especially one in which you can just pick up the final book and see how it all ends. Game of Thrones hasnt even come close to that length and even it has moved out of the books. And imagine if the ratings arent there and they have to cancel after doing book 4 or 5, that would be a most unsatisfying end.

Who says they'll follow the series?


Even if the TV show adheres relatively closely to the series, it's not going to follow the series end to end! Especially those parts that just drag on and on and on...

The characters constant internal monologue over the essential nature of the other gender and what they would like to do to certain members of the group will probably be skipped in favor of a more visual style of presentation

[Anteros]

This is easily my favorite fantasy series of all time, but I don't really see it translating well to live action unless they have an enormous budget. If I had to put a name to my feelings about this news I would call it "skeptical optimism".

It seems like the first 3 books would almost have to be separate seasons. After that you could start dropping things and mushing things together. You could probably do the entire series in something like 7 seasons. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll drop the Perrin and Elayne subplots almost entirely.

[Seerow]

This is easily my favorite fantasy series of all time, but I don't really see it translating well to live action unless they have an enormous budget. If I had to put a name to my feelings about this news I would call it "skeptical optimism".

It seems like the first 3 books would almost have to be separate seasons. After that you could start dropping things and mushing things together. You could probably do the entire series in something like 7 seasons. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll drop the Perrin and Elayne subplots almost entirely.

Perrin I doubt will get dropped. The beginning and end of it are both great, all they need to do is make the whole Faile/Shaido plot line much more condensed. Like there are highlights there, the story just spins its wheels for too long in the books.

[ryuplaneswalker]

the story just spins its wheels for too long in the books.

I see what you did there.

[Kitten Champion]

I'm not concerned that they'll whitewash Tuon, television hasn't had an issue with casting non-whites in secondary roles for a while now. I do expect a Wheel of Time show to reflect the diverse world Jordan created in its general casting, sets, character's accents, etc. Randland's clearly not just Europe with a light coat of paint on top, a large part of the show working for me will be selling me on that.

[The New Bruceski]

With all the flowery descriptions of clothing, building and braid-pulling conveyed visually, and less time for internal monologues about how [person X] is flailing wildly while everyone else is soooooo competent, that's already a good chunk of the books that can be condensed easily. My main thoughts/concerns:
--Book 1 is very... boiler-plate until the series starts doing its own thing. The show could get bogged down before it gets rolling.
--As such, I think the end of Book 1 would be a good mid-season high point, and continue into The Great Hunt for some "oh, the story didn't just stop and now the threads are getting woven apart from each other into an epic" goodness. But there's just so much world-building that needs to be laid down from that first book.
--As I commented, there are a LOT of internal monologues giving you insight into personalities. They'll need some good actors/writers to convey that without stopping for a visit from the exposition fairy every five minutes.

[Blackhawk748]

Darkfriend (maybe it's just me, but that has to be the dumbest name ever)

Holy crap that says Friend, i always read that as Fiend

Anyway im all for this, even though it will be long by necessity. However since a ton of the books where descriptions/internal monologues a video version will shorten a ton of this, so it should be manageable. However im still banking on 7+ seasons.

[Reddish Mage]

But there's just so much world-building that needs to be laid down from that first book.
--As I commented, there are a LOT of internal monologues giving you insight into personalities. They'll need some good actors/writers to convey that without stopping for a visit from the exposition fairy every five minutes.

It's actually very easy. A lot of the nitty gritty details and internal monologues aren't actually plot critical.

Also there's the question of how faithful the adaption is going to be still! Even if they want to make a relatively faithful adaption, well Lord of the Rings is considered one such (arguably) and they leave out numerous side stories, such as nearly all the Hobbits adventures on their own.

Those stories explain where Merry and Pippin get their swords among but my favorite,

Spoiler: Eng of LOTR Books:Return to The Shire

Show

is the story of the Hobbits returning to Shire as level 15 warriors and noticing to find overrun by level 5 rogues

. Jackson also adds some things in and display the ancient battles right at the beginning we are merely told about later in the books. He is far looser with the Hobbit too.

[An Enemy Spy]

It's actually very easy. A lot of the nitty gritty details and internal monologues aren't actually plot critical.

Also there's the question of how faithful the adaption is going to be still! Even if they want to make a relatively faithful adaption, well Lord of the Rings is considered one such (arguably) and they leave out numerous side stories, such as nearly all the Hobbits adventures on their own.

Those stories explain where Merry and Pippin get their swords among but my favorite,

Spoiler: Eng of LOTR Books:Return to The Shire

Show

is the story of the Hobbits returning to Shire as level 15 warriors and noticing to find overrun by level 5 rogues

. Jackson also adds some things in and display the ancient battles right at the beginning we are merely told about later in the books. He is far looser with the Hobbit too.

I think the main lesson to take away from the LotR movies is that a good adaptation is less about capturing all the original works details and more about capturing the original work's spirit, which they do magnificently.

[Lethologica]

I think the main lesson to take away from the LotR movies is that a good adaptation is less about capturing all the original works details and more about capturing the original work's spirit, which they do magnificently.

This lesson can also be captured from the Hobbit movies, as an example of how to screw it up.

[Ninja_Prawn]

there are a LOT of internal monologues giving you insight into personalities. They'll need some good actors/writers to convey that without stopping for a visit from the exposition fairy every five minutes.

Mhm. That's a serious risk. It's like, look at the mess Benioff & Weiss made of Sansa in Game of Thrones...

I agree that a lot of the bulk can be cut. Jordan spends plenty of time on visual details, which is obviously easier in a visual medium, and so far (I'm currently 3/4 of the way through book 5) each book has devoted an increasingly large amount of time re-establishing the setting. It's almost as if he expected people to jump in halfway through without bothering to go back and read the series in order. So that can all be cut, as well.

[ryuplaneswalker]

Mhm. That's a serious risk. It's like, look at the mess Benioff & Weiss made of Sansa in Game of Thrones...

I agree that a lot of the bulk can be cut. Jordan spends plenty of time on visual details, which is obviously easier in a visual medium, and so far (I'm currently 3/4 of the way through book 5) each book has devoted an increasingly large amount of time re-establishing the setting. It's almost as if he expected people to jump in halfway through without bothering to go back and read the series in order. So that can all be cut, as well.

Sansa getting screwed up had nothing to do with the lack of internal dialogue and everything to do with shoving her into a plot that has nothing to do with her actual character arc to make the events in Winterfell..marginally more important to the plot, in the Process not only screwing up her character development as Littlefinger's student, but COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY derails Littlefinger's ENTIRE POINT OF EXISTING. Which technically makes almost everything really pointless since like..all of the Charlie Foxtrot that is Game of Thrones was caused by Littlefinger wanting to screw Catelyn and taking Sansa as a consolation prize.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Sansa getting screwed up had nothing to do with the lack of internal dialogue and everything to do with shoving her into a plot that has nothing to do with her actual character arc to make the events in Winterfell..marginally more important to the plot, in the Process not only screwing up her character development as Littlefinger's student, but COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY derails Littlefinger's ENTIRE POINT OF EXISTING. Which technically makes almost everything really pointless since like..all of the Charlie Foxtrot that is Game of Thrones was caused by Littlefinger wanting to screw Catelyn and taking Sansa as a consolation prize.

For the record, that's completely not what I meant. But it's not really relevant to this thread, so let's drop it.

[Rodin]

On Tuon, I somehow managed to not realize she was black in the first place so I likely won't be bothered by how she's cast. For the record, I had her cast as Asian mentally, since the Seanchan in general have a very Oriental feel to them.

Prior to Game of Thrones, I would have said a TV series was unfilmable. Now, I'm not so sure. They can cut a lot of the chaff and heavily drop the extraneous characters to bring the main plot better into focus. The way the GoT writers have handled the meandering plot of Feast and Dance has been a revelation. Okay, they lost a couple really good plotlines in the process - but at the same time, they slashed a lot of parts of those books which dragged on endlessly.

The real question is whether we're going to get the same quality of writing. If they can get similar quality to GoT in the writing, then we could be in for a treat. If they don't, it could easily be forgettable. I just hope that those legal troubles aren't an indication of future catastrophe.

The other concern is whether they'll be able to handle the special effects - there's a lot more in-your-face magicking going on in the later seasons than there has been at any point of GoT, and it'll be really hard to do. It won't be too hard for...hmm...the first 3 books at least. Maybe 4. Each of those really has only or two big set piece magical bonanzas in, so it wouldn't be too tough to handle. After that though, there are full scale battles happening pretty much constantly somewhere in the world, and the rate of magical dueling shoots up as well.

It does help that a fair bit of the Aes Sedai magic deals with mental manipulation - it's much easier to show Moghedien putting glamours on people than it is to show a squad of Ash'a'man blowing people into chunky salsa.

[Blackhawk748]

On Tuon, I somehow managed to not realize she was black in the first place so I likely won't be bothered by how she's cast. For the record, I had her cast as Asian mentally, since the Seanchan in general have a very Oriental feel to them.

The Seanchan weren't Asian in appearance? I seriously missed that.

[lord_khaine]

The Seanchan weren't Asian in appearance? I seriously missed that.

Seanchan is a big continent, there are more than one type of people living there.

[Reddish Mage]

This lesson can also be captured from the Hobbit movies, as an example of how to screw it up.

Actually, I was more disturbed by it being TOO DAMN FAITHFUL, as in spending 45 minutes or more on that goddamn party. I liked it better in the cartoon with Bilbo appearing as younger and in over his head (and getting it over in under 15 minutes), rather than as grumpy and older and in over his head.

LOTR took out my favorite parts of the book (the burrow-wraiths adventure, Flotsam & Jetson chapter after the battle of Saruman's tower, where Merry finds the orb and is how we learn of Saruman's treachery in the books.

I hate that LOTR starts with the ancient battle and Gandalf's battle with Saruman. The Hobbits are the audience stand-in characters! The world and stories should be shown from their perspective!

I would have written the story as one focusing on the quiet Shire and the exciting Bilbo's birthday for an intro. The book begins describing only the Shire and the Hobbits, suggesting the world is one of wizards making fireworks and endless feasting.

Then the surprise visit from Gandalf discussing the ring to Frodo and suddenly the world is a lot bigger and darker but you still have NO IDEA that the story is anymore than Frodo heading to Rivendale.

Gradually, in the books, the world gets bigger and more political and more dangerous, but it's because it's being told from the perspective of Frodo and Samwise and Merry and Pippin, never Gandalf's!

[Psyren]

Actually for the Aes Sedai Agelessness, I think they could do some CGI age alteration, the fact it always look fake is an advantage in this situation since Aes Sedai Agelessness is supposed to make them look off.

This was my thought exactly.

Honestly as much as I doubt it'll happen, I hope it ends up a CG/animated series, rather than live action.

Part of me wants this too as the huge magic scenes are much easier to handle that way, but the Animation Ghetto that is the US would prevent such a series from ever getting taken seriously by mainstream audiences. Live-action will make the CG much more expensive but it's the only way for the series as a whole to make it.

http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Tuon
Well, consider the new Ghost in the Shell.
How many of you are in doubt over Tuon being cast as black lady?

I have no doubt at all - Tuon is a fairly minor character as these things go, but still prominent enough to make waves in the blogosphere, so I'm sure they'd jump at the chance for a minority there. It's not like, say, Egwene/Nynaeve/Moiraine being a minority that they'd worry about whitewashing in another adaptation.

The diversity of Randland/Seanchan can actually be a selling point for WoT, because Westeros is pretty white.

I cant see this working because the series is simply too long. Each book has so much content that it would be a season on its own, and by that you're looking at a series that would last over 10 years. I cant see an audience hanging with a story for that long, especially one in which you can just pick up the final book and see how it all ends. Game of Thrones hasnt even come close to that length and even it has moved out of the books. And imagine if the ratings arent there and they have to cancel after doing book 4 or 5, that would be a most unsatisfying end.

Walking Dead is 6 years and counting with no end in sight (the comic is also still going.) So I'd have to disagree. Also, remember that huge amounts of the books are padding - dress and setting descriptions that would get conveyed in a visual medium in seconds. Plus they can go the GoT/Harry Potter route of editing entire characters and subplots out completely, which in aggregate can actually subtract an entire book if not more from the total. Consider CoT for instance, the entire book consisted of characters all over the world reacting to the same event - that exact moment could take place within a single episode. Now that the books are over with we know what was important and what wasn't, for instance.

In fact, the more I think about this the more excited I get. One of Jordan's huge problems was messing around with the time sequence of events. lurching forward in a PoV and then backfilling later in a confusing way, as he did with Rand and Mat's journey to Caemlyn in Book 1. In a visual medium this is much, much easier to pull off - e.g. a "two weeks ago" title card to signify the flashbacks, or literally showing how far they are from where they're going etc. Things the book couldn't do because it was anchored to each character's perspective. Hunger Games had this problem too by making you stuck with Katniss and unable to see expository things like scenes in the Captiol or in the Game Makers' Console room.

The Seanchan weren't Asian in appearance? I seriously missed that.

The current royal family are charcoal-black, but multiple others in the Blood (like Suroth and Turak) are white or possibly asian in appearance. In other words, Hawkwing got around.

[Ifni]

The current royal family are charcoal-black, but multiple others in the Blood (like Suroth and Turak) are white or possibly asian in appearance. In other words, Hawkwing got around.

Also remember not every member of the Blood is a direct descendant of Hawkwing; people can be raised to the Blood on merit. And Seanchan is an enormous continent-spanning empire. I got a generally "Asian" vibe as well, but there are Seanchan described as blonde and blue-eyed, and other Seanchan outside the royal family who have black skin.

I'm sure it'll never happen as she's too much of a star, but Lupita Nyong'o is pretty close to how I imagine Tuon, in terms of both appearance and presence.

It'd be interesting to see how they do the accents - I suspect they'd probably just play them down. In particular, I think translating the Seanchan accent directly from how it's described in the books would cause people to crack up. (It's basically a Texan accent, and once someone pointed that out I could never read the Seanchan lines in quite the same way again.)

[t209]

It'd be interesting to see how they do the accents - I suspect they'd probably just play them down. In particular, I think translating the Seanchan accent directly from how it's described in the books would cause people to crack up. (It's basically a Texan accent, and once someone pointed that out I could never read the Seanchan lines in quite the same way again.)

Well, now that you said it. I am imagining them sounding like Foghorn Leghorn than generic imperial character.
"Look 'ere, fella. Ah come ovah from Seanchan ta fulfill our founder's legacy."

[Douglas]

Well, now that you said it. I am imagining them sounding like Foghorn Leghorn than generic imperial character.
"Look 'ere, fella. Ah come ovah from Seanchan ta fulfill our founder's legacy."

"Y'all bow down to the Empress, y'hear?"

Robert Jordan describes that accent many times in the books, but with it always being in a description and not shown in the dialog text itself it never really sank in until I heard the "it's like Texan" explanation.

I see nothing wrong with making people crack up at the accent. As long as the actors are able to say their lines straight while doing it, it would turn into a nice bit of extra atmosphere once the audience got used to it. After a while it would start to serve as a great character marker trait, too - Texan drawl comes from off screen, and the audience immediately thinks "oh no, what are the Seanchan doing here" even before the camera turns to face them.

[Blackhawk748]

"Y'all bow down to the Empress, y'hear?"

Robert Jordan describes that accent many times in the books, but with it always being in a description and not shown in the dialog text itself it never really sank in until I heard the "it's like Texan" explanation.

I see nothing wrong with making people crack up at the accent. As long as the actors are able to say their lines straight while doing it, it would turn into a nice bit of extra atmosphere once the audience got used to it. After a while it would start to serve as a great character marker trait, too - Texan drawl comes from off screen, and the audience immediately thinks "oh no, what are the Seanchan doing here" even before the camera turns to face them.

And thats more stuff i dint pick up. Seriously im learning more stuff about this series now than when i actually read i. hen again it took me like 5 years to actually finish it as i had to wait for the last couple of books.

Still really excited for this and i hope they get some good actors for this

[Anteros]

I think the Texas accent is a bit too jarring for a live action interpretation, and I say this as an American from the south. I know Jordan envisioned it that way, but he didn't have to actually listen to it. I could see them having a drawl, but going full Texas is way too silly.

[Kitten Champion]

I would use the interpretation they decided upon for the audiobook series for the accents, I found them quite distinctive and interesting.

[russdm]

I am rather torn about this. While the Idea of a TV show about Wheel of Time sounds interesting and likely to be long, the biggest issue is that Game of Thrones is really popular and I worry that steps/modifications will be made to try to appeal to that section of the media watchers.

I think that there is a problem for the series over how long and windy the plots are in the books as the plot meanders all over the place following our hero Rand, our sidekick Perrin, and our jester/fool Mat. In many cases very little plot happens. Given the differences through the books, there seems to be really interesting stuff happening in Rand's and Perrin's storylines for most of it, with it taking several books for Mat's storyline to get interesting. Most of the early storylines are also rather slow and ponderous, then picks up, then goes ponderous again.

The Writers may have to trim huge amounts due to the plot issues or the story will utterly confusing at the best of times.

[Psyren]

Also remember not every member of the Blood is a direct descendant of Hawkwing; people can be raised to the Blood on merit. And Seanchan is an enormous continent-spanning empire. I got a generally "Asian" vibe as well, but there are Seanchan described as blonde and blue-eyed, and other Seanchan outside the royal family who have black skin.

You can indeed be raised to the Blood, but IIRC to be the royal family you do need to trace your bloodline back to Hawkwing. Egeanin couldn't become Empress for instance.

I'm sure it'll never happen as she's too much of a star, but Lupita Nyong'o is pretty close to how I imagine Tuon, in terms of both appearance and presence.

I think a good midrange Tuon actress would be Samira Wiley.