The Wheel of Time turns, and it casts Gone Girl‘s Rosamund Pike as our lady in blue, the ever-scheming, ever-watchful Moiraine Damodred. In the story, Moiraine is a Blue Ajah of the Aes Sedai, the all-female magic casters of Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy world. In a world where only women are able to use magic, Moiraine is searching for the prophesied Dragon Reborn, a male who is able channel the male half of the One Power who is said to be the only one to defeat the Dark One … and break the world.
Amazon Studios is going to release the WoT show with Survivor-turned-Chuck-and-Hemlock-Grove-and-Agents-of-S.H.I.E.L.D. writer Rafe Judkins set to be the showrunner. Rumor has it that the show will make Moiraine the primary protagonist (as opposed to Rand al’Thor as it was in the books), so it makes sense to cast her first. Here’s the tweet from the WoT writers’ room that announced the news:
Please welcome Rosamund Pike to the Wheel of Time family. Say hello to Moiraine. #WoTWednesday pic.twitter.com/577Hffwy6Y
— Wheel of Time Writers’ Room (@WoTWritersRoom) June 19, 2019
To me, this is a stellar pick. Pike wowed us in Gone Girl after she had already established herself as a Bond Girl in Die Another Day and played the part of Jane Bennet in the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice. My personal pick (confession: I have a Pinterest board where I’m fancasting WoT) was Katie McGrath, but Pike should do a tremendous job playing a stoic, steely-eyed, always-serious helper and foil to Rand al’Thor.
I can’t wait to see this Wheel of Time show come to fruition. I sometimes worry that it will draw comparisons to Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, but that’s just the nature of genre shows. And with with an Academy Award-nominated actress in tow, the show appears to be setting itself up as a serious player.
It will be fun to see upcoming casting announcements. Now that we have Moiraine, I’m curious to see who they snag for her Warder Lan and, of course, Rand al’Thor. My personal pick for Lan is Jude Law. But, we saw how much the WoT folks listened to my other personal pick.
So what do you think of the pick? Did you have a personal favorite to play Moiraine? Who gets cast next? Let us know in the comments!
