It may be cancelled at Amazon, but star Rosamund Pike still has hope someone else will pick up Wheel of Time. Amazon, for some insane reason decided to cancel Wheel of Time after Season 3, which was critically one of the best seasons of Fantasy TV we’ve had since early Game of Thrones. Season 1 had plenty of issues, partly due to Amazon cutting the episode count from 10-8 last minute. The COVID happened before they could film the hastily rewritten final two episodes and one of the main actors decided not to return for personal reasons.
The end result was a fairly poor Season 1, but… Things began to improve by Season 2 and Season 3 was downright excellent. In terms of success, for money spent the show was performing better than the mega-budget and horrifically bad Rings of Power.
Speaking with Collider, Pike spoke about that Season 1 – Season 3 progression and improvement from a rocky start.
“The fans said Season 1 wasn’t good enough, which I think I agree with, for multiple reasons. We were beset by COVID in the middle of our shooting. We had some heads of department change,” Pike recounts. “Then, by Season 2, we knew what we were doing, and we offered up a much better season. By Season 3, I think we had our wings fully spread, and we were showing where we were capable of going, and there was a really well-acted, well-written, cohesive, deep show that was attracting powerhouse actors to come and play supporting characters.”
“I think we showed what we were capable of doing with that material.”
“Of course, you wonder, had we started off at that place, would we not have been canceled? Maybe. I think we’re possibly victims to the terrible churn factor of people wanting to show that ‘We’ve got a new show.’ It’s all about what’s new.”
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Pike certainly still has some hope. However, I think realistically she knows it is over, sadly.
“In my dreams, another studio would be wise and pick it up. We have such an amazing team now. We have the ability to make a great final sequence of seasons for this show.”
“We’re unusually close. That doesn’t matter, but it says something. I was with [showrunner] Rafe Judkins in London the other night, having dinner. We genuinely are friends now. Zoë Robins, who plays Nynaeve, was texting me this morning, having been to see Inter Alia, my play, in the cinema in New Zealand. I went to the theater with Maja Simonsen, who plays one of the Aiel, last weekend in London.”
“We know what to do with these books now, so who knows? But I think we have to accept that it’s over.”
I think the time has long past that another studio/streamer may jump in and save this. Disney and Apple should be looking at this as the best was really yet to come. It’s a 14 book series that doesn’t really get going till book 4 and that’s where Season 3 got us to, roughly speaking. Neither company really has anything big in the Fantasy genre and Wheel of Time is really one of the best book series out there.
Sadly, I’m sure everyone has already moved on from this. We’d need Matt Cauthon’s luck to get a renewal, or a pick up of Wheel of Time now.
What do you think of Rosamund Pike’s comments about still having some hope of a Wheel of Time pickup?
