Tailored from Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy tales, Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time kicked off its second season final week. With three episodes on the market on the earth, and extra coming every Friday via the eight-part season, io9 acquired an opportunity to speak to a number of the present’s administrators and producers.
Whereas season one, which aired back in 2021, needed to spend time familiarizing viewers with its world and characters, season two plunges proper in—and widens the scope significantly, for the reason that narrative’s many gamers are actually unfold throughout varied far-flung lands.
“Season two has a brand new starting in a manner, as a result of all the characters are separated, they’re taken into their very own separate tales instantly,” director Thomas Napper stated. “I didn’t movie a single scene with the characters collectively as a gaggle as they had been via the entire of sequence one. In order that brings a really completely different vitality to the storytelling and permits the characters to come across different new characters. So all the characters are constructing these new relationships and discovering mentors, challenges, demons, and allies round in these new elements of the story. There’s numerous new world constructing, numerous new places, after which a deeper dive on the White Tower as properly.”
Added fellow director Sanaa Hamrie, who can be an government producer, “We had been capable of actually take the corporate all through the Czech Republic and completely different elements of Italy after which lastly in Morocco, within the Sahara desert, which makes a extremely huge distinction when it comes to the visuals as a result of we’re really on these actual places. I really feel like we have now much more natural places the place we’re actually feeling the weather, whether or not it’s the sandstorms within the Sahara desert, which was had been actually taking place, in addition to being tremendous chilly within the Czech Republic, to the dryness of Italy. Actually including extra of those natural, pure supplies to this fantastical world—I feel that was actually necessary for the imaginative and prescient for season two.”
Producer Holger Reibiger factors to the Morocco shoot particularly as presenting season two’s largest problem, a minimum of when it comes to its places. “To shoot in Morocco, it’s an enormous problem; we shot in a single place [where] no person had shot earlier than. It’s a really, very distant space with no infrastructure. In order that was an enormous problem for us—nevertheless it was necessary for us to shoot there and to indicate the viewers this location and to include [it] into season two.” Added government producer Marigo Kehoe, “It’s thrilling to indicate the viewers new locations—locations that they might not have seen earlier than. If we’re capable of obtain that, that’s wonderful.”
Like most sequence, The Wheel of Time is overseen by a workforce of administrators who deal with completely different episodes—however as you may anticipate, care is taken to make sure visible and thematic coherence.
“As an government producer, I all the time look to creating positive there’s a stability,” Hamri defined. “Season one was sort of just like the leaping off level for season two. So inside that, I feel it’s actually necessary that each one departments discuss to one another and that we’re all on the identical web page, as a result of we have now varied administrators corresponding to Thomas, who did an incredible job for our season opener. And subsequently we have to sort of proceed that language. It’s actually about managing that and ensuring that we don’t veer off, however we need to guarantee that the filmmaker seems like they’re doing their very own factor as properly throughout the context of the language. It’s about sticking to the language of the world, however add in your explicit aptitude. So to me, it’s about managing that and likewise managing the seems to be and the model. We now have nice division heads, so there have been occasions after I would watch all of the footage because it got here in, as I’m directing and prepping—after which additionally ensuring I’m obtainable for the administrators if they’ve any questions [so they could] use me as a lot as potential [as a resource to help maintain] the general imaginative and prescient of season two.”
As Wheel of Time followers properly know, an enormous a part of the story revolves round people who find themselves ready to make use of magic, or “channel.” Visually, it manifests on-screen with the assistance of swirling, glowing particular results, however there’s a sure performative ingredient at play as properly.
“[Series star] Rosamund Pike, [who plays Moiraine], works with a motion coordinator, Scarlett Mackmin, who’s a former dancer and a choreographer. One of many issues that they developed very early on within the present was the concept the channeling was particular person to every individual that does the channeling,” Napper defined. “So there isn’t a type of uniform manner of doing it, there’s a personalised manner of doing it. Channeling really must be an actual expertise, whether or not it’s going via your abdomen or your palms, your arms, or whichever a part of your physique. There’s a really tangible, visceral method to the magic, although clearly there aren’t any swirling lights and no sparkly something [on set]. The actors are then given a sort of key into that, to sort of floor it in realism, which—speaking to Rafe Judkins, the showrunner, proper from the start after I arrived originally of this, one of many phrases that stored arising many times was find out how to make the present grounded. This can be a excessive fantasy with an enormous scope and big ambition, however the performances and the concepts inside these performances have to stay grounded and related for a recent viewers. So it’s all the time the main target: find out how to make the magic grounded, find out how to make it really feel actual, and find out how to make the performances really feel modern.”
The Wheel of Time season two streams new episodes Fridays on Prime Video.
Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every little thing it’s essential to find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.
Trending Merchandise
