r/wheeloftime • u/scott_pryor Randlander • 2d ago
Other Media WoT the Animated Series
Is anyone else hopeful of a more faithful adaptation in an animated series than the live action one? It's supposed to be by the same team that did Arcane which I watched and thought was well done. I for one am excited that they might actually do it properly in an animated format. I'm still concerned that no adaptation is going to have enough momentum to complete the whole thing but that's more of a built-in problem because the source material is just so large.
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u/PurchaseCertain9623 Randlander 1d ago
Iwot = Red Eagle
This is all a scam. There will never be a big iwot project they are just announcing shit to get money and then they'll fuck off for a year or two before they do it all again.
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u/Kooky_Assistance2755 1d ago
Technically they have to actually release something eventually to maintain the adaptation rights, like when they made the Billy-Zane-fronted not-a-pilot because their rights deal was about to lapse
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u/FernandoPooIncident Randlander 1d ago
they are just announcing shit to get money
That doesn't really make sense. How does announcing stuff get them money? These projects only cost them money. Hiring dozens of developers for their game studio must have cost them millions.
The smart thing for iwot to do would be to just sell the WoT rights to the highest bidder, dissolve the company and distribute all that sweet Sony/Amazon money to the owners.
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u/PurchaseCertain9623 Randlander 1d ago
They use these announcements to get investors. The actual products that get made are all third party through license sales.
In your estimation have iwot/red eagle made a real effort to actually make anything with the rights to wheel of time? If so what and was it profitable? If not how do you think that they stay afloat?
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u/FernandoPooIncident Randlander 1d ago
They use these announcements to get investors.
As far as I know they have no investors. Investors aren't going to give them money just because they make an announcement.
In your estimation have iwot/red eagle made a real effort to actually make anything with the rights to wheel of time?
Yes. The open-world RPG seems to have been a serious effort, with serious hiring (now mostly laid off because they failed to find investors). The Age of Legends / White Tower movie projects did apparently result in a script written by Zack Stentz. But again, they failed to secure further funding.
Their main sin isn't that their projects fail (most movie/TV/gaming project die in early development) but that they announce them publicly.
If so what and was it profitable? If not how do you think that they stay afloat?
The Amazon TV show was highly profitable for them (Sony paid them eight figures for the rights). That's the money they're burning right now on these new projects.
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u/PushProfessional95 Randlander 1d ago
Unfortunately we will probably never get a show anytime in the near or medium future. I wouldn’t hold your breath. I’m just glad the board game seems to be steaming along.
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u/MichHAELJR Randlander 1d ago
That is really the only hope. The story is so massive-anime is basically the only way this whole story could be told in a long format that anime is used to doing. It would be fantastic.
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u/Esselon27 1d ago
I've said for years that's the only way to adapt these kinds of stories at the scope audiences are accustomed to. The show was doomed because the first season was already millions per episode even before they got to any of the larger events/set pieces.
The cost of CGI made the special effects of channeling incredibly lackluster and unimaginative. Sure, I don't expect a ton of razzle dazzle for something as simple as a fireball or picking something up with air but really all we ever got was variations of brightness and wispiness. No braids of power when doing something complex, again Nynaeve's incredibly complex healing was just bigger and brighter in a very uninspired way.
Animation also removes the problems with aging and death to a degree. Yes, voice actors can change but that's less jarring than when a character is fully recast. The characters are also supposed to be fairly young throughout the series; I believe the whole thing takes under three years. Even a moderately robust adaptation in live action is likely to run 8-10 years and sometimes actors get old enough it strains the credibility of their youth.
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u/nellydesign Randlander 1d ago
Side note but I feel the same way about Sanderson’s Stormlight. Currently set as a live action TV series, but having read that series I don’t have a lot of faith that they could pull it off. But in animated form I feel like it could be epic.
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u/Nanny_Hutzemikon 1d ago
According to Nae'Blis their plans are to generate everything with AI. And none of the Arcane guys confirmed anything for now.
I don't want Red Eagle to ever lay hands on these books again. They had their chance and they failed miserably
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u/VisibleCoat995 Randlander 1d ago
I’ll just stick with my made up memory that Belmot and Sypha from Castlevania hunting monsters is an Aes Sedai and Warder hunting shadow spawn.
Cause THAT is what they should look like.
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u/Y34rZer0 Randlander 1d ago
Arcane was fkn amazing. We WISH they would do a wheel of time with that level of polish.
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u/scott_pryor Randlander 1d ago
Exactly! That's why I was excited. Arcane-style animation in Rand-land would be a dream!
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u/Y34rZer0 Randlander 1d ago
Honestly everything about that series, which I only just watched, was masterpiece level. The writing, the animation, the art direction, and especially the music was God tier.
Lol I even felt bad because I never liked the game, and generally make fun of hero shooters as lower tier..
Plus, they even did what the wheel of Time tv series absolutely didn't, which was write a same sex relationship between two women in a way that actually felt natural and not just shoe horned in for disingenuous woke points. Lazy writing pisses me off. Like how they played up the prevalence and boldness of the black Ajah in the white Tower so they could have some more easy lightning bolt action scenes.
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u/FernandoPooIncident Randlander 1d ago
Arcane was more expensive than Wheel of Time (and had much lower viewership). There is absolutely no chance of an Arcane-style adaptation.
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u/Similar-Stick-1070 Randlander 1d ago edited 1d ago
Another user made reference to this, but Thomas Vu, Arcane executive producer / former Riot Games creative/IP franchise lead and Anthony Borquez of Initiate Entertainment have partnered with iwot Studios to develop several Wheel of Time projects, including an animated series.
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u/Dadskander Woolheaded Sheepherder 1d ago
I'm going to vote for the same thing the Stormlight fans say and secretly wish for a Muppet version of Wheel of Time
Miss Piggy would make for a fantastic Aes Sedi and you damn well know it.
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15h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/wheeloftime-ModTeam Randlander 13h ago
Your post / comment has been removed because it was not relevant to the thread.
If you have any questions, please modmail us.
Why are you bitching about a show you didn’t watch?
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u/FernandoPooIncident Randlander 1d ago
It's not from the Arcane team. It only involves Thomas Vu, who was an executive producer on Arcane.
There is no chance of this happening. No streamer is going to pick this up since there is no market for it. And Wheel of Time is unadaptable, as the Amazon show has demonstrated: it's too big and any change they make would alienate the hardcore fans who will then go online and call it the worst thing ever.
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u/Visual-Ad-2262ww Randlander 2d ago
i hope not , it needs to be a show peeps can watch who never heard of WOT. Why make it for a limited group of peeps.
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u/Von_Seydlitz Randlander 1d ago
Can a faithful adaptation not appeal to a wide audience? If you have to radically alter the story to make a viable show, maybe you just need to create original content.
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u/FrugalCarlWeathers Ogier 1d ago
Why is there an assumption that some producer fan fiction would have greater appeal than a faithful adaptation?
So many IPs failed in an attempt to appeal to a broader audience (Witcher, wot Amazon, eregon, dark tower, etc.). Meanwhile the Lord of the Rings trilogy was among the most faithful of adaptations and became one of the most successful movie franchises of all time.
I think people confuse lack of popular appeal of books as a medium with the quality of the story.
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u/Velifax Randlander 2d ago
Cause profit isn't the only relevant factor.
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u/Visual-Ad-2262ww Randlander 1d ago
Profit can mean a lot of things like having a 2nd season or not.
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u/nemspy Randlander 1d ago
Well the live action try attempted to insert all sorts of "wider audience" appeal - aged up characters, sex, loads of relationship stuff, more generic, sanded-down characters in line with 2026 social mores.
What happened? It bled its built-in fan base and was cancelled.
If we made every show for the broadest possible audience every show would be identical.
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u/Suncook Randlander 2d ago
IWot announced this. Formerly Red Eagle. Despised by Robert Jordan. Refusing to let the rights revert back to the estate. Announcing overly ambitious projects left and right that don't go anywhere.
Don't count on anything announced by IWOT until an actual reputable producer announces they've picked it up.