Wheel of Time Turns and Turns Again, Series Lands at Sony

The late Robert B. Jordan’s epic fantasy series Wheel Of Time  is finally moving forward as a tv series after several years of on again off again development. Jordan unfortunately passed away in 2007 before finishing his series, but Brandon Sanderson took over the writing duties and completed the saga.

You may recall the strange affair of the Wheel of Time ‘pilot‘ that aired at 2:30am on the FX stations in 2015.  The story about that is strange and convoluted, and boils down to the production rights holders needed to produce something under the title to keep the rights. The pilot was strange, fans were polarized, and Billy Zane was GREAT!

This morning, Variety broke the news that the Wheel of Time property *IS* heading towards a full series at Sony:

Sony will produce along with Red Eagle Entertainment and Radar Pictures. Rafe Judkins is attached to write and executive produce. Judkins previously worked on shows such as ABC’s “Agents of SHIELD,” the Netflix series “Hemlock Grove,” and the NBC series “Chuck.” Red Eagle partners Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon will executive produce along with Radar’s Ted Field and Mike Weber. Darren Lemke will also executive produce, with Jordan’s widow Harriet McDougal serving as consulting producer.

This is pretty exciting for fans of the series, as when that 2015 short pilot aired, it came as a shock to almost everyone, and prompted Jordan’s widow Harriet McDougal to speak out about it:

“This morning brought startling news. A “pilot” for a Wheel of Time series, the “pilot” being called Winter Dragon, had appeared at 1:30 in the morning, East Coast time, on FXX TV, a channel somewhere in the 700s (founded to concentrate on comedy, according to the Washington Post).

It was made without my knowledge or cooperation. I never saw the script. No one associated with Bandersnatch Group, the successor-in-interest to James O. Rigney, was aware of this.

Bandersnatch has an existing contract with Universal Pictures that grants television rights to them until this Wednesday, February 11 – at which point these rights revert to Bandersnatch.

I see no mention of Universal in the “pilot”. Nor, I repeat, was Bandersnatch, or Robert Jordan’s estate, informed of this in any way.

I am dumbfounded by this occurrence, and am taking steps to prevent its reoccurrence.”

McDougal then followed the statement up the following April, saying:

Legal issues have been resolved. ‘The Wheel of Time’ will become a cutting edge TV series! I couldn’t be more pleased. Look for the official announcement coming soon from a major studio.

With 14 books, there is a wealth of material to pull from to build a high fantasy series that may take Game of Thrones‘s place once that series ends.