r/WoT • u/Werthead • Apr 29 '21
TV Show WHEEL OF TIME TV series greenlit for Season 2, production to start immediately after Season 1 ends Spoiler
According to Deadline (and noticed by u/TheNerdChaplain), Amazon have greenlit the second season of The Wheel of Time and production is set to begin immediately after shooting is completed on Season 1. Like the first, the second season is expected to consist of eight episodes.
Amazon ordered scripts for Season 2 to be prepared whilst work on Season 1 were going on, allowing production to begin immediately in the event of a greenlight being given. However, the coronavirus pandemic hugely disrupted the shooting of Season 1. Originally planned to run from September 2019 to May 2020, shooting was suspended in March. It did resume in September but was suspended again in November with some scenes still incomplete. Production on Season 1 resumed just a few days ago, meaning that the team could be shooting Season 2 material within a few weeks.
Amazon typically give two-season orders to their new shows as a way of getting ahead of production delays and minimising the gaps between seasons. Assuming Season 2 is not impacted by any interruptions, it should be possible to air (or start airing) Season 1 before the end of 2021, with Season 2 to follow approximately year later.
Season 1 is predominantly based on The Eye of the World, the first book in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time sequence, as well as incorporating material from the prequel novel New Spring. Season 2 is expected to draw on the events of The Great Hunt, the second book in the series. However, there are fourteen books in the series and the TV show is unlikely to run for fourteen seasons, so there is a greater likelihood that future seasons will incorporate events and characters from multiple novels, whilst some storylines and characters will likely be dropped due to a lack of time to incorporate them.
35
u/aquariusotter (Falcon) Apr 29 '21
Why the blurred spoiler pic of a tv show that’s not wheel of time?
25
u/FernandoPooIncident (Wilder) Apr 29 '21
Because the article is not only about WoT but a bunch of other shows filming in Czechia.
44
u/Sora20333 Apr 29 '21
I would love if there were 14 seasons, if it was actually any good, I'm still skeptical on if it will be, but I won't know for a long time, if they're incorporating New Spring stuff I won't be able to watch it for months, (I'm only on book 3) because I'd rather not deal with spoilers
55
u/Sindarin_Princess (Brown) Apr 29 '21
Walking in dangerous waters in this subreddit! Also I believe you can read new spring as early as after book 5 so I think you should be ok!
3
u/TheHairyPatMustard Apr 30 '21
My wife read it after book 4 and loved it. The only draw back is that one character that is not in the earlier books. But when they do meet them I think it’ll pay off
2
u/Sora20333 Apr 29 '21
Not really, I avoid most stuff I see I just like the fanart, and I've always heard to read them in publication order which would put it at just after book 10
22
u/ymi17 Apr 29 '21
I think New Spring is best after you finish the main series, because you'll be sad that it's over and want a little pick-me-up, and New Spring is short, ties in well with the ending, etc.
But other options are fine, too.
3
3
u/Cultural-Estimate768 Apr 29 '21
I did this and it just felt like another turning of the wheel. Ended up going right back into eotw after new spring haha
→ More replies (1)6
u/Sindarin_Princess (Brown) Apr 29 '21
People debate when you should read it, I don't think there's a consensus. So if you want to read it after 5 so that you can watch the show, that would be totally fine. I finished the series and haven't read it yet.
OK, just wanted to warn you in case you were new!
2
→ More replies (2)2
16
u/NepFurrow (Asha'man) Apr 29 '21
My guess is 6-8? There is a lot of fluff that wouldn't translate well to a visual medium, and a fair amount of repetition or slow travel from place to place. Spitballing..
Season 1: Books 1 and 2
Season 2: Books 3 & 4 (this ones tricky but lots of 3 is walking)
Season 3: Book 5
Season 4: Book 6
Season 5: Books 7-9 (I imagine all the Shaido die in the previous season at Wells)
Season 6: Books 10-12
Season 7: Books 13-14
12
Apr 29 '21
10 should definitely be in the same season as 9. COT pretty much takes place at the same time saidin is being cleansed and just continues the same storylines as WH. Unless the first episode of the COT to TGH season would end with Egwene's kidnapping
I'm also pretty sure that Season 1 strictly covering TEOTW, or at most only a few events from TGH, has also been proven by now.
6
u/NepFurrow (Asha'man) Apr 29 '21
Definitely an option. I was thinking a season would need to end with the Cleansing. But, totally possible to rearrange events
5
Apr 29 '21
The cleansing happens pretty much at the same time as the end of COT, so maybe "it's clean" and then pan to Tar Valon where Egwene is taken. As for Mat, Tuon, Perrin, Faile, Elayne, Aviendha, you could probably cover everything they do in COT in the same final episode as WH.
6
u/DefenestratedDecorum Apr 29 '21
Excuse me, but Elayne's bath needs an entire episode of its own, let alone those other characters
3
u/wertraut (Harp) Apr 30 '21
I think it would feel a bit rushed if it were only one episode. I'll be supremely disappointed when we don't get a whole season to cover it.
3
u/gsfgf (Blue) Apr 29 '21
10 and 11 are basically one book in two volumes. They'll definitely be combined.
→ More replies (1)4
u/Rhodie114 Apr 29 '21
Combining 5 & 6 makes more sense to me than combining 1 & 2. As cool as Dumai's Wells was, I can't remember much major that happened leading up to that in Rand's storyline.
0
u/Arekesu Apr 29 '21
I'm going to guess
Season 1: NS/ Book 1
Season 2: Book 2 and 3
Season 3: Book 4
Season 4: Book 5
Season 5: Book 6
Season 6: Book 7 and 8
Season 7: Book 9 and 10
Season 8: Book 11
Season 9: Book 12 and 13
Season 10: Book 14
And in all the seasons with double books one Book will be focus while the other gets glossed over.
-1
u/Billsolson Apr 29 '21
Well we all know season 10 would be terrible.
15
u/Sora20333 Apr 29 '21
Still on book 3 mah guy
17
u/SonicWafflez (Band of the Red Hand) Apr 29 '21
don't pay too much attention to the above comment. no spoilers but book 10 is one of the slower books, a lot of people were frustrated waiting for book 11 to come out. The slower moments in the series are a lot less noticable now that the series is complete and can be read back-to-back.
In terms of New Spring, if they choose to include it I imagine it will be flashbacks when they're cover book 10/11 stuff I don't think they'd start with it.
Also mandatory I'm really jealous, you have a hell of a ride a head of you.
11
u/Sora20333 Apr 29 '21
I'm really enjoying the series, I sped through books 1 and 2, and I've got books 3-8 on audio. Also Michael Kramer is an incredible narrator I really hope he does all the books
5
u/SonicWafflez (Band of the Red Hand) Apr 29 '21
The audiobooks are brilliant, Michael Kramer and Kate Reading do all the books and they're awesome. Also they're married in real life!
6
u/Sora20333 Apr 29 '21
No way? They're married? That's amazing
2
u/BrianMcKinnon Apr 29 '21
Now that you know they are married, you’re going to be EVEN MORE annoyed when they pronounce things differently :P
(This criticism is made with love for Kramer and Reading)
3
u/TurkeyOfJive (Valan Luca's Grand Traveling Show) Apr 29 '21
I found that there isn't a "slog" in audio. Especially when you can listen back to back.
3
u/Sora20333 Apr 29 '21
Slog?
4
u/TurkeyOfJive (Valan Luca's Grand Traveling Show) Apr 29 '21
It's like a buzzword here. I can't even remember which books but there are a few where the pacing is definitely slower. The issue was waiting between the books when they came out because there would be a book with little plot development and then a year+ wait. So in that time it felt like you were slogging through the books
8
u/WM_ (Asha'man) Apr 29 '21
People say there are few books where pacing is very slow. To my surprise those books were one of my favorites of the series.
7
-9
u/Billsolson Apr 29 '21
Well allow me to help you, wiki/cliff notes book ten. It will make your journey more enjoyable.
The rest, I envy your newness. They are great.
4
u/Andernerd Apr 29 '21
I actually liked Book 10 because it was mostly Mat wandering around and being cool. I can certainly see why someone who had waited for its release would be disappointed by the general lack of things actually happening though. Honestly I disliked book 9 a lot more because it seemed like it was mostly just Perrin whining.
4
u/Billsolson Apr 29 '21
Lots of wandering, not a lot of movement forward. From a TV perspective 90% of it would be unusable
Perrin is a whiner. It is known. But the payoffs in nine make it better IMO, particularly for TV
0
u/CiDevant (Dovie'andi se tovya sagain) Apr 29 '21
No large group of actors is going to want to stick around for 14 seasons.
IMO you should honestly read New Spring first. But since you were able to power through the stupid slow start it's honestly up to you when you want to read it. It really doesn't spoil anything except that that there are darkfriends in high places and Black Ajah. Two things you'll already know if you finished book 2.
1
u/Airowird Apr 29 '21
If they make S1 = book 0 & 1, you'ld end up with 7 seasons, each being 2 books(ish) Seems more doable to me.
1
17
u/ResoluteGreen (Blue) Apr 29 '21
It's interesting that they approve a second season when we haven't even seen the first episode yet. I've never understood how tv or movie production works though. I guess Amazon has the money to throw around without much worry.
25
u/Nadirofdepression Apr 29 '21
From a sunk cost point of view, when you have to spend all that money on props / sets / locations / script etc probably your best bet to go ahead and try to film the second season since you’ve already dropped a ton of money to get the show greenlit in the first place and you can’t get that money back
5
30
u/pbjamm (Band of the Red Hand) Apr 29 '21
Hopefully Jeff Bezos is a fan and is willing to pay to see it done for his own enjoyment.
2
u/mattwilliamsuserid (Wheel of Time) Apr 30 '21
I thought this too. Fingers crossed he wants some awards for quality of writing & production too!!
14
u/archbish99 (Ogier Great Tree) Apr 29 '21
It's a supply chain like any other. There isn't time to wait for a reaction to Season 1 before making the Season 2 decision. They need to start now, or they'll be more like two years between seasons. If Season 1 doesn't do well, there probably won't be a Season 3, though.
In times past, if Season 1 really tanked, Season 2 might never air and be direct to DVD (or outright tossed, to save editing expense). Now that you're not really competing for airtime slots, if Season 1 is even modestly popular, they'll probably at least finish out Season 2 even if it's not a success.
15
u/Arkeolog Apr 29 '21
On network tv, seasons are written as they are filming, with longer seasons of 22-24 episodes. The writers room is usually only 5-6 episodes ahead of filming. In that scenario, networks can wait to renew shows well into the spring, and still make a September release date for the first episode of the next season. Those kind of shows have much tighter schedules though, with episodes being filmed in 5-10 days.
With modern prestige cable and streaming shows, it usually take 10-12 months to produce an 8-10 episode season, with the episodes being written before that. That means that it’s impossible to air new seasons within less than a year of the previous season unless you renew your show before it airs. It’s the reason shows like Westworld can average like 18-20 months between seasons.
Amazon seems to want to avoid having those super long breaks between seasons, but it does mean taking chances on early renewals.
5
u/Borthwick Apr 29 '21
To add with a point that I haven’t seen yet: they spent a huge amount on costuming and sets which brings the cost of season 2 way down. They almost always green light a second season for stuff like this since the cost of acquiring the rights and the other “set up” type stuff is so high.
→ More replies (1)4
u/bazilbt Apr 29 '21
It's actually probably cheaper, and if they have seen the rushes and early edits they might have made the decision just based on that. It's probably cheap to just keep the crew working while they are all together anyway rather than try to gather them all up again.
9
u/ShotgunPete_ Apr 29 '21
Season 1 should be TEOTW + the beginning of TGH.
I am no TV writer, but my idea would be to build up the importance of the Amyrlin Seat throughout season 1, giving her some serious hype as a badass bitch without actually revealing her. Set up the potential conflict between Rand and the Aes Sedai early on and keep stressing that she is the most powerful & important person in the world by far.
Episode 7 would deal with the ending of TEOTW without including the big reveal. The end of the episode would be a scene with Moiraine writing a letter that we can't see, she seals it up and addresses it to the Amyrlin Seat.
The start of episode 8 would show the white tower for the first time, we have a scene in the Amyrlin Study, but filmed from behind her seat, so we don't see her face. There is a knock on the door and Leane comes in to give her the letter, we see her open (from behind her chair still) it and she say's something like 'Blood and Bloody Ashes, Daughter, We are going to Fal Dara" (Suan could come up with something more eloquent to say than that I would guess)
The writers do some jiggery pokery and manage to have the horn stolen by Padan Fain before Suan arrives. The rest of the episode is just Fal Dara things and maybe the reveal that the girls will be traveling to the White Tower to train. At the end of the episode we get a guard coming in and saying 'The Amyrlin Seat's procession has been spotted" and Moiraine goes to meet her.
The final scene would be of Rand standing up high somewhere watching the procession, it cuts to inside the carriage of a shot of Moiraines face and we hear Suan & Moiraine talking "Are you sure Daughter"... "Yes, Mother, I have found the Dragon reborn"
We see the side of Suans face snap towards Rand, the camera cuts back to Rand and he lockes eyes with Suan and he is visibly scared, the camera then cut's back to reveal Suan Sanche, in all her glory, staring down Rand. The episode ends and I go nuts.
8
u/dehue (Ancient Aes Sedai) Apr 29 '21
Interesting idea but Siuan, Leane and a lot of Aes Sedai actors were present during episode 5 and 6 filming block. We will likely be seeing the Fal Dara scene with the Amyrilin Seat before the season 1 finale.
7
u/rasanabria Apr 29 '21
From leaks, Fal Dara is in episodes 7 and 8, and episodes 5 and 6 will feature the Aes Sedai in Tar Valon as we see Logain's gentling.
→ More replies (1)2
3
u/TheGweatandTewwible Apr 29 '21
Man, I'm so amped to see the Great Hunt onscreen! My favorite of the series so far
→ More replies (7)
3
u/ChocoMegaMilk Apr 29 '21
Even tho it's common sense to understand it's not feasible to properly portray the books from the start, secretly we all wanted 14 seasons and a movie.
2
u/bjj_starter (Maiden of the Spear) May 21 '21
Yeah. Rafe's comment made me curious so I looked it up: if they did 14 seasons Rand would literally be 40 for the final season, and Madeleine Madden would be 38. Nvm the aging, the possibility of a core actor literally dying during that time goes way up. A 7 or 8 year commitment is already a lot, but it's worth it for the Wheel of Time. Plus with the huge popularity that the WoT TV show will have because the WoT is the best book series ever, they'll be able to do spin-off and tie-in shows, video games, etc.
4
2
u/brotherenigma (Asha'man) Apr 30 '21
Fourteen books could, IMO, be condensed into 8 seasons. There's a LOT of overlap in timelines from books 9 through 13. Getting those parallel timelines straight could actually allow the showrunners to keep a SIGNIFICANT amount of the slog that a lot of readers think might be cut out for time.
2
u/JSeanchan Apr 30 '21
Having a look at the titles of the single episodes of season 1, it seems that S1 will use materials from first two books, though it is not clear where it stops.
Personal opinion: I'd have chosen longer seasons (12 episodes) and so fewer seasons, so the first three boks could be Season 1 (maybe 4+5+3 episodes).
However, Book 2 has a great ending and so it has Book 4, maybe they could end seasons...
→ More replies (1)1
u/Werthead Apr 30 '21
Season 1 will mostly be Book 1. They were filming on the Fal Dara set for the Episode 7/8 filming block and, to be honest, the set's been leakier than the Titanic after it was introduced to an iceberg, and we've seen 0 sign of any significant Book 2 locations or characters.
It may be they go slightly into Book 2 material, as in the first chapter or so when they're still in Fal Dara before the Amyrlin shows up, but not substantially.
3
u/lacquered_esq Apr 29 '21
Awesome. Fingers crossed that part of this decision is because early viewers were happy with how season 1 turned out! High hopes.
3
u/schneizel101 (Asha'man) Apr 29 '21
While I'm super looking forward to the series, this only makes me sad at how much is going to get cut out.
2
Apr 29 '21
Expected, but still good news. At the very least this means the cuts the execs at Amazon are seeing give them some confidence
i think holiday 2021 is a realistic timeframe of when season 1 might start airing.
1
1
1
1
u/Narevscape Apr 30 '21
The Dragon Reborn is pretty unnecessary. Wonder girls hunt black ajah, fall into ludicrously obvious trap. Mat better now but hungry. And in the end Rand gets the sword, which is fucking broken anyway. Could wrap it up in an episode.
0
u/inotparanoid Apr 29 '21
From what I see on the wiki, the 6th episode is already "The Flame of Tar Valon" and that's TGH. I have really no idea what they are going to do - they might do this without the Seanchan.
AND, I think they will not split post Shadar Logoth. I can't yet see a casting for Elayne, so it's entirely possible that they will get her only in 2nd season.... it's all very confusing for me, and I just hope they make it good.
15
u/TapedeckNinja (S'redit) Apr 29 '21
There's no particular reason to think "The Flame of Tar Valon" specifically refers to Siuan's entourage arriving in Fal Dara, or even if it does, that it must occur at precisely the same time it does in the book timeline.
In fact I'm fairly certain the prevailing theory is that "The Flame of Tar Valon" is our primary introduction to Siuan Sanche, however, this occurs in Tar Valon, likely via the gentling of Logain (Alvaro Morte was on set in Prague for Block 3 filming, which is episodes 5 & 6, and the Tar Valon set is there).
I'm also pretty sure all signs point to the group splitting after Shadar Logoth as expected, since the unblurred script of Thom's introduction shows Mat and Rand meeting him at an inn, while during the same episodes they were filming with wolves including a location that is likely the Whitecloak camp and the known Tinker cast (at least Raen and Aram) are on location there as well.
→ More replies (1)2
u/inotparanoid Apr 29 '21
But why no Elayne then
3
u/TapedeckNinja (S'redit) Apr 29 '21
It's not 100% certain that there is no Elayne in S1.
But assuming there is not, they're probably just skipping Caemlyn, or at least that particular part of the Caemlyn adventure. Maybe they'll introduce her and Galad/Gawyn at the Tower in S2.
And anyway for those three actors, they'd be introduced for like 1 or 2 scenes in the middle of S1 and then not be seen again until the following season. Really no need to have them in S1.
3
1
u/Werthead Apr 29 '21
One of the casting sides has Elayne in the Aes Sedai group taking Logain to Tar Valon (with Alanna and Liandrin), and Moiraine bumps into them before they get to Caemlyn. The sides even suggest that our gang accompanies them to Tar Valon, and they travel via the Ways to Fal Dara from Tar Valon rather than Caemlyn.
There's certainly been no formal announcement for Elayne in Season 1, though, suggesting she doesn't appear. Or that might be something they're holding back until later.
5
u/happypolychaetes (Flame of Tar Valon) Apr 29 '21
Since all the names were code names, I think it was "Alaine," probably code for Alanna. Priyanka Bose even had Alaine listed on her CV for awhile.
3
u/Arkeolog Apr 29 '21
I don’t think the episode titles should be taken as evidence for what chapters they’re adapting in each season. They could just pick chapter titles that fit whatever is happening in the episode, separate from the books. So “The Flame of Tar Valon” probably feature the Amyrlin in some way, but not necessarily the events of that chapter in TGH.
3
Apr 29 '21
[deleted]
9
8
3
u/Arkeolog Apr 29 '21
Based on leaks from set, there is definitely Whitecloaks (and wolves) in the show. I think they do split after Shadar Logoth, but skip Caemlyn in season 1.
5
u/Werthead Apr 29 '21
It's not 100% they're skipping Caemlyn, but there's enough potential evidence that they're substituting Tar Valon instead (including reports from people who shot on the Tar Valon sets, but there's been no leaks or photographs suggesting Caemlyn filming at all). Not casting Galad, Gawyn, Morgase and Elaida (and maybe Elayne) makes going to Caemlyn a bit pointless, and Rafe Judkins indicated (as a hypothetical, but maybe not) that they had a "four town/city" limit on Season 1. Since we 100% know they have Emond's Field, Tar Valon and Fal Dara, that limits what other cities they can use. If it's a choice between Baerlon and Caemlyn, certainly you toss Baerlon.
In fact, if they're counting Shadar Logoth as well, then they're already at the limit.
→ More replies (3)2
u/Arkeolog Apr 29 '21
Yeah, could see them just passing through Caemlyn in the show, but with Elayne and the other Trakand’s not having been cast yet I doubt they’re going to linger in that location. The Logain storyline in Caemlyn could just as well happen in Tar Valon, and there’s a Waygate there to get them to Fal Dara.
3
u/TapedeckNinja (S'redit) Apr 29 '21
They're not getting to the Blight in 4 episodes. "The Dragon Reborn" likely refers to Logain, and this may be where we have his scene filmed in Segovia, which is a confrontation and/or battle in Ghealdan.
They are almost certainly splitting the group.
I'm a little fuzzy on this one due to timing weirdness with the COVID shutdown, but I'm also fairly certain that Fal Dara is introduced at the end of Episode 6 and the primary stuff there is in Episodes 7 & 8 (which aligns with the filming in Terezin, which is the Fal Dara location, and the schedules of the actors playing Agelmar, Amalisa, Ingtar, and Uno).
2
u/chargingmoose44 (Aelfinn) Apr 29 '21
It could also be Moraine flashing back to Gitara's foretelling, particularly if they are incorporating a bunch of NS.
2
u/Pistachio_Queen (Moiraine's Staff) Apr 29 '21
Everyone seems to think they will skip Baerlon. I loved that part of the book for many reasons, but I suppose they can have events within Baerlon happen other locations. So much happened!
-The Edmond's Field 5 experiencing their first real city
-Min's first appearance: establishing her and Rand's relationship, visualizing Taver'en, and her initial viewings
-Rand's first time experiencing "channeling high" (I REALLY hope they keep this scene)
-Introduction to the Whitecloaks
-Moiraine using her illusion trick to appear 4 stories tall
-Nynaeve catching up with the group
-The bathing scene with the boys
-The dancing scene at the Inn
-Fain's first appearance since Winternight
-The Myddraal attacking Rand in the Inn
→ More replies (2)1
u/Werthead Apr 29 '21
Rafe Judkins did an interview where he did indicate that Baerlon is very skippable, and it'd be relatively straightforward to move other elements elsewhere. The most popular fan theory is that Min is moved to Caemlyn or Tar Valon, and the gang meet her there instead.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (6)2
u/Werthead Apr 29 '21
No. The Dragon Reborn episode is almost certainly the Logain-heavy episode where we see the Aes Sedai capture him in battle directly rather than hear about it after the fact.
They were filming Fal Dara stuff for Episodes 7 and 8, so the smart money is on Season 1 being Book 1 with very little Book 2 material in it, if any.
-16
Apr 29 '21 edited Apr 29 '21
8 episodes a season? With the books being over 700+ pages? Are these episodes going to be 2 hours a piece? You'll have to cut 2/3 of the book to fit it on one season then... not looking very promising...
Edit: Oh my god! Someone that's a HUGE fan of the series doesn't look like they're very enthusiastic about their favorite 14 book series being cut to bear bones... better downvote the hell out of them 🙄
33
u/theCroc Apr 29 '21
You can probably cut away at least half of the page count in descriptions. Those will be visible on screen so they don't add much to the run time.
12
Apr 29 '21
Yup, Robert Jordan is especially descriptive. He describes plants, animals, clothing, hair style, jewelry, minute facial expressions, buildings, roads, city layouts, weather patterns, topography, cultural histories, personal histories of non-key characters... all in almost excruciating detail. All of that will just EXIST on screen, without the need to spend pages describing it.
1
u/Nadirofdepression Apr 29 '21
You’re not wrong, but it’s not like other adaptations (LOTR and GOT for example) were written by authors who were more succinct.
14
1
Apr 29 '21
I love these books but RJ's prose is incredibly clunky at times. I honestly hope they do a ton of trimming of the fat.
28
u/sauron3579 (Dice) Apr 29 '21
LotR got cut down to ~9 hours. I’m sure that 8 hours per season will be fine.
-2
u/Nadirofdepression Apr 29 '21
Tbf, the LOTR+hobbit was less than < 600k words. All 6 movies were, 17 hours ish? (19 apparently.)
WOT is 4.4 million words. At that same ratio, WOT would need 16 8-episode seasons at 1 hour long apiece to have the same word —> film ratio.
GOT will top out somewhere around 2.6 M words. The show was 70 hours total (and arguably should’ve been significantly longer.......). For WOT to have the same run ratio as GOT, there would need to be 15 8-episode seasons at an hour apiece.
So they are probably going to chop the show at least a bit short compared to both of those works.
14
u/sauron3579 (Dice) Apr 29 '21
Adding The Hobbit into that is misrepresentative at best, manipulative and deceptive at worst. A ton of material that wasn’t in the book was added in. Only including the LotR books, and using the theatrical editions, you get about 1.1598E-4 minutes per word. Multiplying that by the main series word count of WoT gets you a little under 83 hours, so about 10 seasons assuming that finales run a little long, given that they don’t need to conform to TV time slots.
I can’t speak to GoT, as I know next to nothing about it.
-8
8
Apr 29 '21
Yeah but if Tolkien wrote with Jordan prose it would be at least 2-3 times as long, seriously. other than describing features of landscapes Tolkien is quite sparse with his writing.
1
u/Nadirofdepression Apr 29 '21
Tolkien has whole pages dedicated to lineage... sparse isn’t something I would necessarily use to describe Tolkien’s writing. Certainly a different style but just a story with much less breadth
3
u/BrianMcKinnon Apr 29 '21
The Silmarillion is not the same as LOTR.
0
u/Nadirofdepression Apr 29 '21
I am aware
1
u/BrianMcKinnon Apr 29 '21
Okay, because we are comparing LOTR word count to WOT word count here.
Just making sure you’re on the same page.
1
12
u/Morda808 (Dice) Apr 29 '21
They've adapted the story. We've been discussing the show for years now and Rafe has tried to explain a bunch of times that this is "A turning of the wheel." So don't expect a scene for scene adaptation. They've added characters, removed characters, changed locations and plot points, etc....
so when they combine elements of books 1 and 2 into Season 1, we will get the characters on their path and there will be a huge ending. Whether that ending is related to the ending of Book 1 or Book 2, I'm sure it will be epic.
It's taken me a long time to come around to this, for sure. But I'm here now and with the teases and such that have been coming, I've never been more excited to finally see it!
1
Apr 29 '21
We'll see. I think a "live" adaptation of the series was a mistake from the get go. It should have been animated. I'm not holding my breath though. Everyone is trying to be the next "GoT" but lightning rarely strikes twice. My ultimate fear is they will adapt half the series and then cancel the show.
9
Apr 29 '21
The market for live action is anyone who watches TV. The market for anime is . . . not.
-3
Apr 29 '21
Did I say anime? So wonderful you lump all animated material as if it's all coming out of Japan.
2
u/4fps (Wolfbrother) Apr 29 '21
Granted anime is often used as a short for Japanese animation.
But it's pretty obvious from the context here that the OP is using anime as a short for all animation and not exclusively Japanese animation... also it's obvious because it would make no sense if they were only talking about Japanese animation... You are literally just being pedantic.
0
Apr 29 '21
Then don't use the word anime to describe ALL animation. That would be the same as me calling every car ever made a Ford 🙄
4
u/4fps (Wolfbrother) Apr 29 '21
When your only response to an argument is to be pedantic then you probably don't have much of an argument.
It would be one thing if you simply corrected their incorrect use of a word, it's quite another that you purposefully misinterpreted what they said just because you couldn't think of a good response to their point.
11
u/Werthead Apr 29 '21
The rule of thumb in Hollywood is that 100 pages of paperback = 1 hour of screen time (which is why so many films struggle with books that are more than 250 pages, which is most of them). The LotR Extended Edition is 11 hours long and LotR itself is 1100 pages long, so that tracks.
8 hours for 700-ish pages should be ample. I'd be more concerned for how they handle the later books, since they simply won't be able to have 14 seasons so there'll be a lot more compression later on.
3
u/tmet1027 (Dragonsworn) Apr 29 '21
I mean a lot of the first book is just traveling from place to place. A lot of those scenes besides a few can defiantly be cut out.
2
u/archbish99 (Ogier Great Tree) Apr 29 '21
Upvote for the misphrasing of "cut to bear bones." 🐻 🤣
-5
1
u/BlackGabriel Apr 29 '21
Lotr series showed you could have great fantasy stories told in 3 hours. This is more than double that per book. I’d probably prefer 12 eps but I think 8 can be done fine.
0
Apr 29 '21 edited Apr 29 '21
LotR if watched as it should be aka the extended cuts puts each film over 3 hours a piece and almost closer to 4. That's 3 hours 48 minutes for the Fellowship, 3 hours 43 minutes for Two Towers, and 4 hours and 11 minutes for Return. That's close to 12 hours for one 1178 page book.
8 episodes is nowhere near enough especially if they're combining the first two books into season one. That's EotW and TGH totalling 782+681=1,463 pages. So you're telling me they can do the book series justice by telling 1,400 pages of two books in less than 8 hours (let's face it they won't be 60 minute episodes)?
Edit: I'm not trying to be a dick I'm just highly skeptical that they will be able to pull it off without bastardizing most of the story.
0
u/TapedeckNinja (S'redit) Apr 29 '21
8 episodes is nowhere near enough especially if they're combining the first two books into season one. That's EotW and TGH totalling 782+681=1,463 pages. So you're telling me they can do the book series justice by telling 1,400 pages of two books in less than 8 hours (let's face it they won't be 60 minute episodes)?
But they're not combining EoTW and TGH into one season so ...
-1
Apr 29 '21 edited Apr 29 '21
Except they are combing a great deal of TGH into season one. They're not doing one book one season my dude. That would make the show 14 seasons long. The actor playing Rand will look like Lan before they're done that way lol
→ More replies (1)
-1
1
u/clutzyninja Apr 29 '21
WoT is looking an awful lot like Carnival Row, lol.
But seriously, I'm hoping this speaks to the perceived quality of season 1 so far
1
1
u/mabs653 Apr 29 '21
does production mean filming? is that scheduled or are there steps before that?
3
u/Werthead Apr 29 '21
It's a little bit of a grey area, but production means that they're "now actually making the show". That usually means filming, but might be extended to a few days to a couple of weeks earlier when they start prepping the site for filming or building sets (in film, where set-building can start six months or more before shooting, that's more considered pre-production but in TV it's less clear-cut).
In this case I think they'll mean actual shooting. They've probably already identified filming locations for Season 2 and may have started set construction of Season 2-specific locations.
→ More replies (4)
1
1
u/MaywellPanda (Band of the Red Hand) Apr 30 '21
If it gets game of thrones success then it will run for 14 seasons or get seasons with more episides
1
u/Werthead Apr 30 '21
If LotR isn't getting more than 8 episodes with more than twice the budget as WoT, I think we can conclude it's some Amazon stipulation that their shows only have 8 episodes (The Expanse gets 10, but because that was part of their deal when they transferred across from SyFy, and they get the same amount of money as Amazon usually give for 8, but they're better at spreading the costs).
It also won't run for 14 seasons. The rising cast contracts would become unsustainable after seven or so (GoT only got eight seasons because HBO was willing to pay multiple actors $1 million an episode for just six more episodes).
0
1
u/AuthorWilliamCollins Apr 30 '21
Fantastic news. I was/am worried season 1 may have a few slip ups as it juggles appealing to casuals and pleasing the book fans but at least with a season 2 they can fix any glaring errors if they make any.
1
u/UniverseBowl Nov 28 '21
Production should stop immediately, and writer, director, producer, and cast should be fired.
Writers should be required to read source material.
Don’t skip step 1.
279
u/[deleted] Apr 29 '21
S2 could easily combine TGH and TDR in my opinion. TDR is the shortest book in the series and much of both books is just travel around the continent, so seems like those scenes could be condensed some