It’s been two weeks since The Wheel of Time season 2 wrapped up principal photography in Morocco. Since then, showrunner Rafe Judkins and the main cast of season 1 made an appearance this past Monday at a panel for The Wheel of Time during The Prime Experience event. While Josha mentioned on his Instagram that they finished shooting season 2, we have yet to hear any official word from the production about this milestone. Fans are anxious for more official content, but in the meantime, we’ve got two new castings today, as well as a couple more cast speculations that we hope can tide people over.
(Edit, 11:20 am: The Wheel of Time Twitter just made a post about season 2 wrapping today)
Cast Member: Elena Fokina
First up, Elena Fokina (pictured on the far left, above) has been cast as a sul’dam for season two. Fokina is an actress, dancer, choreographer, and teacher of contemporary dance with almost 20 years of performing arts experience. She is probably best known for her role as “Olga” in the horror movie Suspiria (available on Prime Video) where she used her flexibility and dance skills to great effect.
Elena recently filmed in Morocco for scenes likely directed by Maja Vrvilo, who is the director of episodes 5 and 6.
Cast Member: Daniel Francis
Daniel Francis (second to the left, above) is a classically-trained actor who may be best known for his role as Dr. Facilier in Disney/ABC’s Once Upon a Time. He also recently appeared in the Harlan Coben thriller series Stay Close and is set to appear in Apple TV’s upcoming series Liaison, alongside Eva Green and Vincent Cassel.
Francis will be appearing in season two of The Wheel of Time as High Lord Turak. Turak is a Seanchan character who appears in the second book of the series, The Great Hunt. While we know that Francis wrapped his role in the aforementioned Liaison at the end of August, 2021, we don’t know when or where he filmed his scenes for The Wheel of Time.
Speculation: Adrian Bouchet
Adrian Bouchet (second to the right, above) is a Zimbabwe-born actor who is probably best known for his roles as “Steapa” in The Last Kingdom and “Captain Drautos” in Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV. Bouchet graduated from Birmingham University and trained at The Birmingham Theatre School, however, due to his skills in horse-riding, on-screen combat, and his imposing 6’4″ (193 cm) stature, he’s often cast in physically demanding roles.
Bouchet was in Prague and most recently in Morocco filming for a secret project, and he was recently confirmed to be cast in the second season of an epic fantasy Prime Video series. We believe it likely that this series is The Wheel of Time.
Speculation: Maja Simonsen
Maja Simonsen (far right, above) is a model and actress who was born in Paris, France and has had roles in Treadstone, The King’s Man, and most recently, Emily in Paris. She is a relatively private person online; however, she has connections with a number of cast and crew of The Wheel of Time on social media, and many of these connections were only made recently, as the filming of the second series was winding down. While this isn’t the most compelling evidence, we have a strong hunch that the link between Simonsen and the others is mutual work on The Wheel of Time.
As always when we offer up conjecture, we want to emphasize again that this is speculation on our part and that Bouchet and Simonsen may not actually be involved with The Wheel of Time. However, we’d love to hear your thoughts on which characters — if any — you think they might be playing.
Season Two Cast
If you’re in need of a refresher of all the season two cast we know of so far, including actors speculated to be in the show, Eri has released a new video covering just that topic! Watch it here or over on her YouTube channel.
Pretty sure the woman in on the right at the table read at 25s is Cathy Bates. Is she playing Verin?
Nope, that is definitely Rima Te Wiata. She looks just like her.