The Wheel of Time premiered this weekend on Amazon Prime Video, and co-author Brandon Sanderson shared his thoughts with fans over on Reddit. Sanderson finished writing the novels based on notes left by original author Robert Jordan after Jordan passed away in 2007. He has been actively discussing the TV series with fans, including some of the changes it made from the source material.
The Wheel of Time consists of 15 novels – 12 written by Jordan alone and the final three in the main series co-written by Sanderson. Jordan’s widow Harriet McDougal chose Sanderson to finish the series based on her husband’s notes and drafts, and both McDougal and Sanderson served as consulting producers on the TV adaptation. The TV show makes a few pretty significant changes from the books just in the three episodes that have premiered so far. Sanderson shared his thoughts on those changes, but obviously, there are spoilers ahead.
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Sanderson wrote that his “part” in the TV writing process “equated to reading the scripts and offering feedback directly to Rafe [Judkins], the showrunner… Biggest thing he and I disagreed on was Perrin’s wife. I realize that there is a good opportunity here for Perrin to be shown with rage issues, and to be afraid of the potential beast inside of him. I liked that idea, but didn’t like it being a wife for multiple reasons. First off, it feels a lot like the disposable wife trope (AKA Woman in the Fridge).”
Sanderson is referring to the character Laila (Helen Westerman), added to the TV show in the pilot episode as Perrin’s wife whom he accidentally kills with an ax while fighting off trollocs. Sanderson went on: “I think the trauma of having killed your wife is so huge, the story this is telling can’t realistically deal with it in a way that is responsible. Perrin killing his wife then going off on an adventure really bothers me, even still. I have faith that the writers won’t treat it lightly, but still.”
Sanderson wrote that his alternative pitch was to have Perrin accidentally kill Master Luhhan, the blacksmith who took Perrin in and treated him like a son. He thought this would have accomplished Judkins’ goal of “accelerating Perrin’s plot” with less blowback. He also worried that the added Laila subplot was too “grimdark” and “edgy” and ultimately reflected the impulse for all fantasy adaptations to “lean into being a tonal Game of Thrones replacement.”
On the other hand, Sanderson praised the show’s big change surrounding the identity of The Dragon Reborn. In the books, the prophecy specifically states that the Dragon will be man, while in the show it could be a person of any gender. Sanderson wrote that he wouldn’t have made this particular change himself but that he “actually preferred this prologue.”
In a separate post, Sanderson also highlighted some of the suggestions he had given that had made it to the final product, including characterization moments for Lan (Daniel Henney) and tweaks to the river crossing scene. Here, he said that he liked the scene between Perrin and Laila a little better having seen it for himself at last.
Sanderson was less enthusiastic about how the characters had been “aged up” in the TV adaptation and how Rand (Josha Stradowski) and Egwene’s (Madeleine Madden) relationship was further along in development than in the books. Sanderson’s own books are famously chaste, but he admitted that this version of events made sense in a TV show as compared to a book.
Finally, Sanderson addressed the changes to the character Mat Cauthon (Barney Harris) and his family, who were generally loving in the books but are dysfunctional and abusive in the show. He wrote: “I did try to get this one changed too… Again, I do wish they had taken a less “grim” feel to all of this, though I do think the details of introducing Mat were interesting and a nice acceleration of his character. Which is a good thing, since the series will need to condense from the books, so moving character beats up in time is going to generally help with that.”
“This team is excellent,” Sanderson concluded. “They have real respect for the story, and are good writers. This is an enormously difficult project to undertake, and I’m quite impressed by Rafe and everyone involved.”
The Wheel of Time airs on Fridays on Amazon Video. All 15 books are available now in print, digital and audiobook formats.
