The Wheel of Time prequel The Age of Legends finds a director in Kari Skogland. Frankly I’m surprised it has got this far. Deadline reports that Skogland who directed The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series for Marvel will helm the first movie in a planned prequel trilogy. The movie is exec produced by Eva Longoria. Here is what the trade had to say.
‘BAFTA winner and Emmy nominee Kari Skogland has been set to direct live-action feature The Age of Legends, the first instalment in the planned trilogy of films that will explore the origins of Robert Jordan’s bestselling book series The Wheel of Time.’
‘Screenplay comes from Thor, X-Men: First Class and Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous scribe Zack Stentz.’
For me this all comes down to how well the movie is written. Is Zack Stentz the guy to write a story out of what is very little canonical detail? Thor, was okay, I really enjoyed the script for X-Men: First Class, never seen the kiddie JP show. However, this is no easy task folks. Anyone who has watched Season 1 and 2 of Amazon’s The Wheel of Time, has seen this Age. This movie would be set during those small flashbacks we see to a more civilised and technology advanced society. However, other than a few key events from that Age, very little was ever developed by creator Robert Jordan.
That means Stentz is making up a lot of this on his own. In fact this is more of a fan fiction piece that Rings of Power is, as Tolkien detailed far more of his Second Age than Jordan did the Age of Legends.
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“Directing The Age of Legends is a remarkable opportunity to bring a beloved universe to life and delve into the rich lore that has long captivated the hearts of millions of book readers around the world,” Skogland said.
“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.”
“Kari’s brilliance in crafting visually stunning worlds makes her the ideal director for The Age of Legends,” said Rick Selvage, president of iwot productions. “This film is not just an adaptation; it’s an exploration of an original world that blends fantasy with elements of science fiction, and Kari’s mastery in storytelling is crucial for bringing Jordan’s vision to life.”
Concerns
So will this work?
Here is my main issue, the rights holders to this. The last public post Robert Jordan made before his death was him bashing iwot productions. Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon bought the rights to The Wheel of Time from Jordan and he then realised they were just buying them to sell later for a profit. Then, when the company was set to lose the rights they quickly produced a short film called The Winter Dragon which was about the prologue to the first book in the series. Fans hated it and it was rushed out just to maintain the rights. It’s not good, but you can find it online.
Both alongside Ted Field of Radar Pictures are listed as exec producers on Amazon’s The Wheel of Time. However, they don’t actually have any input into that series whatsoever. They make money through the rights, just as Jordan realized they’d do before his death.
So you can kinda see why I said I was surprised this Wheel of Time prequel had gotten this far. The prequel trilogy was announced some time ago, I just never felt they’d get it under cameras. I guess we will just have to wait and see whether the creatives behind this can actually pull it off? One thing I would not expect is any connection with the flashbacks in Amazon’s The Wheel of Time. They won’t be connected i don’t think at all. Therefore, it seems unlikely the film series will choose the same actors to play the likes of Lews Therin, Lanfear or Elan (Ishamael).
What do you think as The Wheel of Time prequel The Age of Legends finds a director in Kari Skogland? Thoughts below as always.
