Today at 11am PDT, Rafe Judkins appeared on Amazon’s panel at Comic Con at Home 2021, talking about The Wheel of Time. You can watch the entire panel on Comic Con’s Youtube Channel, but we’ve summarized some of the highlights here.

Release Month and First Look Poster

The interview ended with what fans everywhere were waiting for, the exclusive asset drop. This was in the form of a first look poster of Rosamund Pike as Moiraine. Included on the poster was our first official news of a release month, November 2021.

The official The Wheel of Time accounts also shared the poster, along with six others in Spanish, Japanese, Hindi, Portuguese, German, and French. The alt-text description of the poster confirms that Moiraine is standing in front of a Waygate: “The poster depicts an iconic moment from The Eye of the World. Moiraine, standing beneath slowly moving clouds and wrapped in a blue cloak that is blowing in the wind with its hood down, looks over her shoulder at the audience as she steps through a Waygate into the unknown. She is inviting us to go on a journey with her. The words ‘Amazon Prime Original’ and ‘Nov 2021’ are overlaid on the image along with the Wheel of Time serpent logo and the Prime Video smile.”

Revelations from Rafe

During Rafe’s inteview with host Tim Kash, he shared more information about the world of The Wheel of Time, and his personal connection to and passion for the series. On the global casting and why it was important for the show, Rafe said that “The Wheel of Time has always sat as the most diverse fantasy book that came out in its time, and I think when you’re adapting it to be on television today, we also need to do that in order to honor the books that are there and make this the most diverse fantasy TV show that’s been on television before.”

Golden Globe winner Rosamund Pike has been at the forefront of marketing and discussion for the show. In answering the question of the process of casting Moiraine and how Rafe landed on Rosamund Pike for the role, he revealed the story about his first words shared with Rosamund Pike. Rafe was in Bali on a writers room retreat when Rosamund called him and said, “Rafe, I know this woman. I can be this woman.” He was able to feel Rosamund’s passion for the character and the story, and he calls her “the best foundation any good show could ever hope for.”

Rafe also shared that he “broke out what [he] thought eight seasons of the show might look like before [he] started writing the pilot.” While this is not an official confirmation of how many seasons we may expect for The Wheel of Time series, it shows how important Rafe thinks it is to have a plan and to begin with the end in mind.

Fan Discussion

A lot has been said already in the fandom about the revealed poster and release date. If you want to watch other fans react to the panel and dive into theories and discussion in real time, check out The Dusty Wheel’s live stream of the panel.

In the past, we released an article theorizing a late November 2021 release date and that it was possible Amazon’s marketing push wouldn’t start until a few months prior to the show’s air date. While we don’t know exactly when it November the show will be released, nor the release format, we do know that we can expect a trailer by the end of summer and the marketing efforts to really pick up in the next few months.

How are you feeling about the information from today’s Comic Con at Home 2021 panel? What are you most looking forward to seeing in the coming months? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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eri@wotseries.com | + posts

Lover of fantasy and other geeky goodness.