The Czech Republic is home to a number of world-class film studios, including Prague Studios and Barrandov Studios. Instead of using one of these existing studio locations, however, The Wheel of Time production has leased a 32,000 square meter (344,445 square foot) production hall on the outskirts of Prague in the Czech Republic and created their own studio, aptly named Jordan Studios.
Jordan Studios
The building contains multiple sound stages and a costume studio. The complex also has outbuildings and administrative offices that have housed production crew and the Season 2 writers’ room, as well as specific events like the Block 3 (episode 5 and 6) table read. During production in late 2020 and early 2021, tents were spotted on the premises for administration of health and safety protocols. Multiple cast and crew photos over the past two years can be identified as taken at the studio, the administrative offices, or the exterior of the building.
Source: Alexandre Willaume’s Instagram.
Documents show that shooting occurred on at least five sound stages, labeled A through E, as well as on the studio’s backlot. The backlot — an area where a production builds large or permanent outdoor sets — is located a few blocks away. Currently, it’s home to a set for the streets of a bustling city, presumably Tar Valon. (Check out fellow sleuth Narg’s photos of this area on his Instagram.)
In March, 2020, Rosamund Pike did an interview for The Times. The author states, “[…] There’s not much I can tell you about trekking across its gigantic set, a former truck factory, because I signed a scary-looking NDA” (emphasis added). Google Street View shows that the studio building formerly belonged to Avia, a Czech automotive company. As you can see in this video tour of the building (taken prior to Jordan Studios’ establishment), the size of it is truly massive.
We reached out to production specifically about Jordan Studios in June 2021, but have yet to receive a response.
An Additional Studio?
According to documents, The Wheel of Time also filmed several times a short distance away in Třeboradice. Třeboradice is home to another studio, previously used for Quake (2018) and for the creation of a set piece for the film Amundsen (2019). While we don’t know what sort of set was built here for The Wheel of Time, we know that they filmed here in March of 2020 and returned in April and May of 2021. It’s possible they needed additional room that they didn’t have in Jordan Studios, so they found a “satellite” location. It’s not uncommon for productions to shoot small studio scenes away from the main studio due to scheduling conflicts, lack of available space, or other logistical concerns.
Our Thoughts
We believe it’s significant that the production created Jordan Studios for The Wheel of Time, rather than using an existing studio as Amazon has done for other originals including fellow Prague-based production Carnival Row. It also seems that the production will be headquartered in Prague for the foreseeable future, as they would not have built their own studio otherwise. This implies Amazon is in this for the long haul, and is not afraid to invest in the show.
Jordan Studios has a special place in our hearts here at Wotseries, because it represents one of the earliest times we truly worked together as a team. As the four of us combed through social media, news articles, maps, and every other corner of the internet, we realized that working together was much more efficient — and rewarding — than separately.
Stay tuned: Omar and Sara will be attending JordanCon (July 16-18, 2021), and Rafe Judkins will appear in a ComicCon panel on July 23, 2021. Light willing, we’ll have a teaser trailer soon.
This all good news to my ears and kind of what my impression was from some of those bits and pieces. Thanks for putting this together and fleshing it out with all of your various finds from the production. You continue to be my favorite WoT news source.
What a terrific article. Thanks for all your hard work!
Hope your teamwork leads to more fun and a lot more articles!!!
Fascinating article, thanks for all your hard work
Fantastic article Sara, well done WoTseries for all your great information always attained and shared in such an ethical and open way to support the series.
I didn’t dig into the other studios in Prague, but it looks like Jordan Studios is larger than the other two mentioned. Very impressive.
No, it is not. Barrandov Studio is the bigest.
Yet another massive tick in the box for how good this could be,
9 days to our Teaser at Comic Con😁