On top of the ongoing Amazon series, The Wheel of Time is getting a prequel movie captained by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s Kari Skogland and the plan is to build out an epic trilogy.
The exclusive news was shared by Deadline, who confirmed that BAFTA winner and Emmy nominee Kari Skogland will direct the live-action take on the renowned fantasy universe’s Age of Legends. The screenplay comes from Thor, X-Men: First Class, and Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous scribe Zack Stentz. As it stands, this new adaptation of Robert Jordan’s books will exist separately from the series co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios.
It’s not like continuity will be much of a problem, as the story is set several millennia before the timeline of the main books, charting the emergence of the Dark One and the tragic tales of the Forsaken – leaders “who fell victim to the Dark One’s seduction.” That sounds an awful lot like The Lord of the Rings’ Second Age.
Skogland, who’s also currently attached to a Cleopatra biopic starring Gal Gadot, shared her excitement and plans for the movie: “My vision is to honor the worldbuilding of Jordan’s masterwork, while peeling back the layers of legend and myth to reveal the flesh-and-blood characters underneath — flawed heroes and villains alike — ordinary people forced to make extraordinary choices as their world unravels.”
Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see how the world is explored on the big screen and (hopefully) with a huge budget. It’s been a good while since truly epic fantasy literature has been brought to life for cinemas, so we’re curious to see where this is all going. The movie is produced by Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon of iwot productions and Ted Field of Radar Pictures, all of which also executive produce for the aforementioned TV adaptation of The Wheel of Time.