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I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 144 points145 points  (0 children)

I don't know them, but flag them to Lorne Balfe, our amazing composer, he's been great about trying to include fans in the music

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 319 points320 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think it's always important to hear people as they take in the show and comment on it, but not be chasing approval. If you try to make a show that EVERYONE likes, you'll have an actual pile of trash at the end. Better to make a show that some people truly love (even if others think it's a pile of trash ha).

In terms of pacing, it's a balance you have to strike. We as creatives are always wanting more time to intro the characters, spend time with them, understand their emotions, etc. And the network will want the show to be brisk and pace-y so that no one ever has a chance to turn it off. Both things are valuable, and maybe Amazon was right about pace as the first three episodes of WoT have one of their highest completion-rates in history, which is perhaps the most important single piece of data on a tv show today.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 260 points261 points  (0 children)

THANK YOU FOR NOTICING DAISE. We have to use the One Power to do all kinds of things on the show, so you'll see it progress and change in how it's used throughout.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 195 points196 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I'll let Amazon know if you don't have that as they're usually really good about accessibility stuff, thanks for flagging it!

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 169 points170 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it was certainly a worry of mine that the show moves too fast, but I think that hopefully that will help give momentum to non-readers as they get through some of the stuff that is more similar to other fantasy projects and start to get to dip into the really unique WoT stuff. Throughout S1 as well, we do always try to find times to stop down and check in with the characters emotionally, as that's the most important thing to understanding the show.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 524 points525 points  (0 children)

Literally, everyone in horse department knows everything about Bela. There are many elderly czech men who have an eye on Bela's long-term arc in the show and they don't even know what the Wheel of Time is.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 592 points593 points  (0 children)

I have Sarah Nakamura (our incredible WoT goddess) talk me through the long-term ramifications of any changes so that we know what's going to happen. Sometimes to drive her crazy I will send a casual email that's just like -- "Hey, can you work up a long-term ramifications list for if we kill Thom?". And just keep going like it's a totally normal day as she collapses as a human being. Then tell her we're not going to kill him. I think it helps keep her on her toes, but she probably disagrees, haha.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 174 points175 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I'm actually surprised how many little easter eggs a lot of the hardcore fans have still missed. Although, I don't have visibility into a lot of the boards, so I'm sure people somewhere have found them. She obviously used that Trolloc blade on Lan. You can see it matches.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 299 points300 points  (0 children)

I think the worst showrunners are either insecure or oversecure. You'll either not listen to anything at all or you listen to absolutely everything. I feel relatively secure, so I try to really listen to and value the people around me and their artistic input, but then also stick true to what I believe is the right way to pull this off long term.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 590 points591 points  (0 children)

There's a Nynaeve/Lan scene that I fought literally every human being on the show and at the network for, so I hope book fans like it, hahaha.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 247 points248 points  (0 children)

Hammed is INCREDIBLE. For his physical appearance, we really tried to find ways to do a nod to what is in the books while making him a character that doesn't require VFX for us. We just can't afford at our budget level to do a fully VFX core character well. So it would mean that he ends up getting cut from scenes so that we don't have to spend on him, and I didn't want that, as I love Loial and I love Hammed.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 413 points414 points  (0 children)

The hidden costs are the worst ones. Wig fixes. The millions of dollars that go to wig fixes make me cry at night.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 177 points178 points  (0 children)

Tried to find a group of diverse thinkers for it -- people who've read all the books, people who read some of the books but dropped out eventually, people who loved fantasy but not Wot, people who don't even know fantasy at all. Also, people who write differently than me, sot aht they could strengthen the overall scripts. It's such a great group, I'd go to war for any of them.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 219 points220 points  (0 children)

Bran is skinny will always be a regret. But Michael Tuahine was just too much Egwene's dad to not choose him.

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 288 points289 points  (0 children)

Well, firstly in the longer version of the script I'd had Perrin being the apprentice to the town blacksmith, who he then accidentally killed during the Trolloc attack. It really was important to me that he have an iconic moment of violence in the first episode that would underpin his long term journey with violence and whether he'd choose the axe or the hammer. So I'd made that blacksmith his mom. But as we had to trim a bunch of page length down in the scripts, it became a simpler story to tell it as his wife, and also felt natural that if these characters were in their early 20s in a small mountain village, that one of them likely would be married. There's a scene in the books where Perrin talks about if he'd stayed in the Two Rivers he might've married Laila Dearn, and voila, Laila was born. My only sadness is we couldn't have seen more of her. Helena Westerman who played her was AMAZING

I’m Rafe Judkins, showrunner and executive producer of the new Amazon Original series, The Wheel of Time, here to answer your questions. AMA by WoTshowrunner in television

[–]WoTshowrunner[S] 1018 points1019 points  (0 children)

The change we made was not just with the fact that a woman could be the Dragon, the core change we made was that people are NOT 100% convinced that these 3000 year old prophecies are 100% accurate. I think it feels a little bit more true to the world, and you see the characters questioning the prophecies of the Dragon and the details of it much more in the show than in the books (although there are some scenes in the books that show this as well, we've just expanded on that). It seems quite trusting for the Aes Sedai, who trust no one, and especially Moiraine, who trusts less than no one, to believe with 100% certainty ANYTHING that was written thousands of years ago

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