This Saturday saw a convention appearance and a Wheel of Time Season 3 update from showrunner Rafe Judkins, including Tanchico confirmed as a location. Judkins appeared at a panel for New York Comic Con this Saturday. Whilst it was initially very brief, he did provide an update on The Wheel of Time Season 3. He also spoke later to various media outlets and gave a but more information
Season 3 had been filming prior to the release of Season 2. After a break, Season 3 is now back to finish off the principal for the Season. The actors are employed on equity contracts instead of SAG for this show. Therefore, the shoot is not affected by the currently still active SAG-AFTRA strike.
The plan for Season 3 is to follow the fourth book, (titled The Shadow Rising) more closely. The main big take from this panel was that the Season will feature the City of Tanchico, which some fans had guess would be cut. However, there is a full transcript below courtesy of WOTSeries.
The Aiel Waste
“I mean, one nice thing about season 3 is that we really get to focus on one book this season, which is book four, which is one of the best books in the entire series. So I’m glad that we get to really spend a whole season doing it. And I just flew back about 36 hours through 3 continents and arrived here today ’cause I was standing in Rhuidean and then I flew here. So that is one thing that fans will get to see for sure in season three: the Aiel Waste.”
Frankly there is no way to do book 4 without Rhuidean and the Aiel Waste, so there’s no surprise here. We also may know where filming for the Aiel Waste has been happening. According to WOTSeries, they’ve learned the Aiel Waste was filmed just south of the Namibian desert in South Africa. The crew and directors were all seen in Africa. Additionally a local on social media also claims sets were being built recently which matches what Judkins said above.
New Forsaken Cast For Season 3
Judkins also confirmed that a new Forsaken has been cast for Season 3. So far on screen we have seen Ishamael, Lanfear and Moghedien.
“I mean one thing I love to look at is theories about the Forsaken. We really felt like the Forsaken are such an incredible part of the books, and we wanted to bring them to the forefront in season 2 kind of earlier than they really are forefronted in the books. And so I’ve seen some very serious commentary online about the Forsaken and who or who may not be in the show. And I can — I mean, it’s not really even a confirmation — but I can confirm that we have cast and put on set a Forsaken you have not seen in the show as of yet… you would know them from the books.”
Pretty sure that’s going to Asmodean, but we will wait and see.
More Tel’aran’rhiod
Judkins also teased we will see more of the Dream World (Tel’aran’rhiod) in Season 3 and more of the Aiel culture.
“I think one of the other cool things that we get to explore is the Aiel culture. They’re these incredible warriors in the Wheel of Time world, and we get to go really meet them and see them go to where they’re from, and we also get to explore with some of our characters the World of Dreams and Dreamwalking with these Aiel. I think that’s a really cool thing to get to do in season 3 because it is one of those unique elements in Wheel of Time that no other book series really has. So, we really explore that world in season 3.”
Season 3 Focused On Rand And Perrin
Additionally, THR were at a Q&A with Judkins on Sunday and he gave some additional information. To begin Judkins said that Season 3 will focus most on Rand and Perrin of the main five characters.
“Every season, we sit down in the writers room and one of the things that we do at the very beginning is pick out a couple of the stories that we have to carve out a space to make a whole episode for,” he said. “We think it’s worth it because those stories will really stand out to an audience, especially that didn’t read the books. They’re given that time, and it’s carved out, so they can really follow that character on that journey.”
“The first season was more of the group journey that had the one big Moraine episode, but for seasons two and three, we’ve really carved out two episodes of season that can really be devoted characters,” he continued. “This season was a really big Egweyne and Nynaeve season for us. Next season is a really big Rand [and] Perrison season for us. There are always different characters who are rising in importance.”
Tanchico And The Sea Folk
Tanchico confirmed by Judkins as being designed for Season 3. Which means we could guess Nynaeave and Elayne will end up there at some point. However, Judkins confirms as much in the comment below.
“We have been working very hard to build and that is the world of Tanchico. It’s tropical. It’s so different than anything else you’ve ever seen on the show before and genuinely — I don’t know if I can say this — but we built a bar and some of our characters like Nynaeve and Elayne that are in there,” he explained. “This place was just so wild and the costumes are so different. There’s tropical plants hanging from the ceiling and everyone looks like they could kill anyone at any moment.”
Judkins also confirmed Season 3 would see the introduction of a new culture, the Sea Folk.
“We have built the Sea Folks ship, so we’ll get to see the world of that which you don’t know anything about yet,” Judkins said. “We shot it just a couple of weeks ago.”
I speculated on what may happen in Season 3 in the related post above. However, I now don’t think we are going to be seeing Tear in Season 3. I thought it may be possible if they replaced Tanchico with Tear. If Tanchico is in however, then I just see no room for Tear in Season 3, Perhaps that will now be the climax of Season 4?
What do you think of this Wheel of Time Season 3 update from showrunner Rafe Judkins? Any book readers surprised to have Tanchico confirmed like me? Lastly, there is still no mention of a Season 4 being greenlit by Amazon, sadly. Let’s hope that comes soon enough. As always, leave any thoughts below.
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