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EXCLUSIVE: “The Wheel Of Time” Costume Designer Sharon Gilham Talks Season 3

As longtime readers of this blog will know, it is my humble opinion that Amazon’s The Wheel Of Time boasts some of the most ambitious and exciting costume design on television: from rainbow-hued Aes Sedai gowns and pantsuits to Aiel desert camouflage, from insect-like Seanchan armor and headdresses to high fantasy bondage gear, every costume is a gamble that pays off in spades. Costume designer Sharon Gilham and her team (pictured below) have played a key role in establishing The Wheel Of Time’s iconic look and feel, and I had the great honor of speaking to her ahead of the series’ third season.

A large group of people (The Wheel Of Time costume department) standing on three levels of a warehouse filled with costumes, all posing for a photo.
The Wheel Of Time season three costume department | Provided by Sharon Gilham

Leith Skilling: What drew you to The Wheel Of Time?

Sharon Gilham: To be honest, I was a bit of a newcomer to the fantasy genre. I hadn’t worked on anything like The Wheel Of Time before, and certainly not on such a huge scale. Not only was it a great challenge in terms of the number of characters and nations to create, but I realized, after my initial meeting with Rafe [Judkins, showrunner] and Marigo [Kehoe, executive producer], that it was going to be an absolutely incredible experience creatively.

Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred, standing on a beach. She has long dark brown hair. She wears a long-sleeved white button-down blouse and a dark blue dress. On her left hand, she wears a gold ring with a large blue gemstone.
Moiraine Damodred | Jan Thijs/Prime Video

LS: Of the costumes you’ve had to try and adapt from page to screen, which has been the most difficult to get to a place where it feels like what the books described but is still practical?

SG: I remember when Rafe first mentioned the Aiel culture to me partway through shooting season two. He described how the Maidens of the Spear — Aviendha, Bain and Chiad — lived a nomadic life and had to carry everything they needed with them, including many weapons. I thought ‘How am I going to make this work dramatically and practically when the spears are 2/3 of the height of the actresses?!’ It was a real challenge but through a process of trial and error and many hours problem solving with the combined skills of Rob Goodwin (couture leather maker), armorers and the props team, we finally created a series of holsters and quick release panels that meant the spears and bucklers could be anchored to the girls’ backs, creating an aesthetically pleasing ‘fan’ shape, and at the same time have a practicality to them.

(Left to right) Maja Simonsen as Chiad, Ragga Ragnars as Bain, Ayoola Smart as Aviendha, and Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, walking through a desert. Aviendha, Bain and Chiad all have long reddish-brown hair. They wears very similar outfits: sand-brown hoods, black scarves, brown leather armor over sand-brown tunics, skirts and trousers, with short spears strapped to their backs. Perrin has short dark frizzy hair and a beard, and wears a dark green woven-leather vest over a faded red long-sleeved shirt with olive-green trousers and brown boots.
(Left to right) Chiad, Bain, Aviendha, and Perrin Aybara | Jan Thijs/Prime Video

LS: Something I adore about the costumes in The Wheel Of Time is the timeless quality they possess; you can’t lock them down to a specific era, because there’s such a wide range of fabrics and materials on display, as well as techniques. How much freedom do you give yourself in that regard?

SG: The scope of The Wheel Of Time is so huge. Robert Jordan’s detailed descriptions of the cultural references that make up each nation (Cairhien = French/Japanese; Seanchan = Mesoamerican/Imperial Chinese, for example) make for a very rich starting point. The first thing I did was start to collect fabrics, accessories, trims, etc., from the actual cultures described so that we had the authenticity of those fabrics at our fingertips. I shopped in markets in France, in vintage shops in the UK, and suppliers internationally. I tried as much as possible to use all these fabrics directly in the manufacturing of the costumes, which gave them a real sense of being grounded or anchored in reality.

Sometimes it was only a scrap of fabric that was available, so I was lucky enough to be able to enlist the help of our incredibly talented textiles department, who were able to recreate the fabric. This could mean either screen-printing the fabric on our 5m long printing table (the Seanchan culture, the Whitecloaks’ undergarments), hand painting onto silk (Suroth’s kimono, Adeleas’ colorful kimono), or applying foil directly to the fabric (Lanfear’s part-Japanese, part-French coat). One of the cornerstones of the philosophy behind the design process for The Wheel Of Time is that the costumes should feel as if they have been created using pre-Industrial Revolution manufacturing techniques.

The sense of freedom comes from being able to move through different periods of time in our history and find inspiration from those time periods. Everything has a reference and a significance but you can pick and choose your moments and your movements. For example, the Seanchan triangular print which features in all of the costumes of that society from the soldiers to the da’covale to the High Lords and Ladies is based on an Anni Albers design from the 1960s combined with an Alexander McQueen-esque reptilian print. Anything and everything is possible.

Daniel Francis as High Lord Turak, standing in front of a pink stucco wall. He is bald. He wears an intricate collar of bone over a black feathered mantle, over a black-and-gold scale-patterned robe with a long dark blue train. The first two fingernails on both his hands are extremely long and bladed.
High Lord Turak | Jan Thijs/Prime Video

LS: The character of Lanfear has become a fan-favorite in no small part because she’s always so fabulously dressed. My jaw literally dropped when she was revealed in the World of Dreams for the first time at the end of season two, episode five [Damane]. How did you reach that iconic look?

SG: Lanfear — like the other Forsaken — comes from a time when the world was more developed: the time before the ‘Breaking’ when the world collapsed. As such, the Forsaken have the most futuristic style costumes. In the scene you’re describing, Lanfear is at her most devastating, fetishistic, dominatrix self, so it made sense for her costume to reflect this. The design of the bodice is deliberately asymmetrical to show how unbalanced she is, a theme that is often echoed in the Forsaken costumes. I wanted her to have a dramatic headdress which referenced her symbol of the moon and a vicious weapon simultaneously. It also plays with the dual concepts of saidar and saidin, the male and female halves of the One Power, similar to yin and yang. She is at once terrifying and compelling. It is so much fun to incorporate as many of the layers of symbolism in The Wheel Of Time books as possible, even in a single costume.

Natasha O’Keeffe as Lanfear, descending from a stone dais in the middle of the desert, upon which stands a circular throne. She has short jet-black hair under a black crescent-moon headdress. She wears a black leather harness over a black dress wit thigh-high slits and one sleeve covering her right arm, with thigh-high black lace-up high-heeled boots.
Lanfear | Provided by Sharon Gilham

LS: Each of the seven Aes Sedai Ajahs has its own highly individual philosophy. How does that come across in their costumes? And, with a character like Liandrin, how do you convey through clothing that she’s not only Red Ajah but also belongs to the undercover Black Ajah?

SG: When I first started on The Wheel Of Time, I wanted to expand the iconography behind each of the Ajah groups, to give them a kind of rationale relating to color as well as their role within the White Tower. In the books, the Reds are the law enforcement, the Blues spies, the Yellows healers, and so on. I took those colors and those roles and made a series of ‘rules’ about the type of fabrics or shapes of clothing that would be worn to more explicitly demonstrate the connection between the color and the role within the White Tower society and the Wheel Of Time world as a whole.

The Reds have more restrictive clothing and materials — leathers and structured fabrics like wools and heavy cottons — and the Blues have more fluid fabrics that suggest how they flow through the landscape in their search for the truth, and so on. Liandrin’s costumes in season two become gradually more militaristic, almost gestapo-like. In season three, the black even begins to spill into her costume physically. As we move through season three, I wanted her costumes to move away from the physical black into a manifestation that felt even more dangerous, which will become more apparent in later episodes.

Kate Fleetwood as Liandrin Guirale, standing in a stone doorway, looking up. She has long blonde hair. She wears a red-brown leather vest over a long-sleeved red coat, with a red stone hanging around her neck.
Liandrin Guirale | Amazon MGM Studios

LS: What are you most excited for fans to see in season three?

SG: So many things! There are epic events in almost every episode, there are so many incarnations of so many characters, new worlds and scenarios that unfold and reveal new characters within them…but there is one character that I can’t mention here, that I think fans of the books and Wheel Of Time novices alike will be very excited to see.

LS: On a more personal note, is there any specific film or costume designer’s body of work that inspired you to become a costume designer?

SG: I have been inspired by many films along the way, from Peter Greenaway films like The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine, Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood For Love, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, Eiko Ishioka’s costumes for The Fall, Linda Muir’s work on films like Nosferatu, and Michele Clapton’s work on Game Of Thrones, which really pushed fantasy into a new era. You can see where the costume designer has been allowed a kind of freedom, which results in a really strong visual aesthetic to the work. This was the case for me on The Wheel Of Time.

Poster of Priyanka Bose as Alanna Mosvani. She has dark hair pulled back in braids. She wears brown leather armor with a collar over a dark green dress with thigh-high slits. Her body and clothes are dissolving into leaves. Text reads “The Wheel Of Time: New Season, March 13th”.
Alanna Mosvani | Amazon MGM Studios

LS: And finally, of the seven Aes Sedai Ajahs, which would you belong to and why?

SG: Well, it has to be the Greens. Partly because these days more than ever women need to embrace and manifest the warrior inside; and partly because I was given a green Aes Sedai ring as a birthday present from my team and it was personally presented to me by none other than Moiraine Damodred herself!

The Wheel Of Time returns for its third season on March 13th, only on Prime Video.

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“The Wheel Of Time” Drops First Look Images Ahead Of Season Three

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME THROUGH BOOK FOUR: THE SHADOW RISING, AND POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON THREE, AHEAD!

The best (and most criminally underrated) fantasy series on television, Amazon’s The Wheel Of Time, is returning for its third season in less than two months, and the streamer has dropped first-look images showcasing new locations and characters, key moments from the pages of Robert Jordan’s The Shadow Rising, and a wardrobe’s worth of bold, beautiful costumes designed by the absolute madwoman (complimentary) that is Sharon Gilham. Rand al’Thor and the rest of the Emond’s Field Five feature heavily, while characters like Alanna Mosvani and Liandrin Guirale are nowhere to be seen, indicative of the series-wide shift in focus away from the Aes Sedai (including Rosamund Pike’s Moiraine Damodred) onto the younger cast led by Josha Stradowski’s Rand, happening in season three. This shift, which doesn’t occur in the books because Rand is the clear protagonist from the get-go, is something some fans have eagerly anticipated and others have dreaded, and I am very interested to see if The Wheel Of Time can achieve a healthy balance. Let’s see what we can glean from the new images.

Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor, Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, and Donal Finn as Mat Cauthon in The Wheel Of Time, standing in the common room of an inn. Rand and Perrin are leaning against a square stone pillar. Rand has short reddish-brown curly hair and wears a dark blue jacket over a lighter blue shirt. Perrin has frizzy dark hair and a beard, and wears a dark plum-colored coat over a plaid vest. Mat, out-of-focus in the foreground, has short dark brown curly hair and a patchy beard, and wears blue.
Rand, Perrin, and Mat | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Rand, Perrin Aybara, and Mat Cauthon get together for drinks, something they haven’t had a chance to do since they left Emond’s Field in season one, episode one. This shot has to be from very early in the season, because the three boys’ storylines obviously haven’t yet diverged, with Rand heading off to the Aiel Waste, Perrin returning to Emond’s Field, and Mat apparently accompanying Nynaeve al’Meara and Elayne Trakand to the city of Tanchico. Based on the architecture, the setting is probably the city of Tar Valon, which tracks with what we know (from descriptions of footage shown at CCXP in Brazil) about one of the first major set-pieces in season three, a battle between the Aes Sedai and a mutinous contingent of Darkfriends led by Liandrin Guirale that moves from the White Tower out into the streets of Tar Valon.

Ceara Coveney as Elayne Trakand and Ayoola Smart as Aviendha, drinking together and smiling. Elayne has long reddish-brown hair and wears a gold dress. Aviendha has long reddish-brown hair in locs, and wears a sand-brown hood made from a coarse fabric, with lightweight brown leather armor and fingerless gloves.
Elayne and Aviendha | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

In what looks to me like the same tavern in Tar Valon, Elayne and the Aiel warrior Aviendha are seen sipping drinks and staring into each other’s eyes. This image immediately caught my eye for the simple fact that I’m queer, and like many queer readers, felt that there were definite undertones between these two characters even in the books, where Elayne and Aviendha come to regard each other as “first-sisters”, an Aiel term for two women who are not of the same mother but are as close as if they were kin. In Robert Jordan’s expansive world, there are a fair number of female characters one might be tempted to categorize as canonically queer characters, although unfortunately, nine times out of ten, I feel it would be more accurate to describe these characters as overtly heterosexual women thrust into homoerotic situations by their creator for no other reason than that he was a straight man who was not particularly subtle about his fetish for women making out with each other (that, and women being spanked: there’s so much spanking in The Wheel Of Time). So in spite of all the evidence that would seem to support queer interpretations of Elayne and Aviendha’s characters and relationship, I genuinely do not think Jordan himself thought of them as anything but straight.

That being said, the television adaptation has already canonized one relationship that was ambiguous in the books, between Moiraine and Siuan Sanche. Jordan wrote that the two women were ‘pillow-friends’ during their youth — the Wheel Of Time equivalent of saying they ‘experimented in college’ — referring to a practice amongst the isolated female Novices at the White Tower of finding comfort in same-sex partners: only, Jordan emphasizes, because there are no men around. It’s understood in the books that Novices are supposed to ‘mature’ out of desiring these same-sex relationships, with those who don’t often framed as having sinister motives. Moiraine and Siuan, however, are middle-aged women in the show, and their love is portrayed as just that, love, not a ‘phase’ either woman is looking to outgrow. There are also several other explicitly queer characters on the show, both male and female. So I have faith that fans of the “Avilayne” pairing will not be let down.

Natasha O'Keeffe as Lanfear, standing in a doorway, looking over her shoulder with a slight smirk. She has short jet-black hair and dark eye makeup. She wears a black-and-white cloak or mantle, and around her ear she wears an ornament in the shape of a three-headed black snake.
Lanfear | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Although it’s hard to tell for certain where this shot of the Forsaken Lanfear fits into the timeline we’re piecing together, I’m going to put it here because the architecture in the background feels more like Tar Valon than any of the other locations we know we’ll be visiting in season three, and it would be very much in-character for Lanfear to stalk Rand while he’s out with friends. I’m gonna tell you my theory: Lanfear is keeping just enough distance between herself and Rand so as not to make her presence near him known to the other Forsaken who may be watching, but Rand notices her in this scene – and this is the moment she turns away, with an almost sorrowful expression on her face that says she could protect him from what’s coming, if he only let her back into his heart. By the time he reaches the door, she’ll have vanished, of course, leaving him shaken up. You can remind me come March if I was right or if this shot is from an entirely different scene.

Sophie Okonedo as Siuan Sanche, throwing her arm out and channeling red and gold threads of the One Power into a spiral weave as she battles an unseen opponent. She has short dark hair under a lofty headdress made of gold lace and baubles, and wears a gilded coat.
Siuan Sanche | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Siuan Sanche, the Amyrlin Seat of the Aes Sedai, throws out her arm and channels a complex weave using red and gold threads of the One Power in this image, which I feel pretty confident in saying is from the aforementioned battle with Liandrin and her cronies. The woman beside Siuan is Alanna (yes, I lied when I said she was nowhere to be seen, though to be fair, it is only a bit of her shoulder; but those gold epaulets are clearly the same ones she’s wearing in the teaser trailer, shown below). Siuan is channeling upwards in this shot, which leads me to believe that Liandrin is on the mezzanine encircling the round Hall of the Sitters, or has brought the roof down on their heads.

Priyanka Bose as Alanna Mosvani, weeping over someone's body. She has long dark hair covered in ash. She's wearing a green dress with gold epaulets and a gold collar.
Alanna | youtube.com
(from left to right), Ceara Coveney as Elayne Trakand, Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere, and Zoe Robins as Nynaeve al'Meara, on horseback. Elayne has blonde hair in a bun, and wears a gauzy green dress with gold armor. Egwene has short dark hair under a gold tiara and wears gold armor over a long gold gown with a serpentine flame pattern. Nynaeve has long dark hair, and wears a padded silver vest and armor over a yellow dress.
Elayne, Egwene, and Nynaeve | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

This striking image of Elayne Trakand and Nynaeve al’Meara flanking Egwene al’Vere, all three on horseback and wearing impractical armor over luxurious gowns, can only be from one of the two Accepted Tests we haven’t yet seen, Egwene’s or Elayne, and I’m gonna take a wild guess and say it’s Egwene’s based on the fact that she’s front-and-center, and dressed as the Amyrlin Seat (Flames of Tar Valon are emblazoned on her armor and embroidered on her gown; she’s also wearing a ring identical to Siuan’s; the gemstone necklace is a curious accessory, unique to Egwene but with no immediately apparent symbolism). In the books, the last of the three alternate universes Egwene enters during her Accepted Test is one in which she is Amyrlin and must preside over the trial and gentling of Rand al’Thor, a captive of the Red Ajah.

The sense I’m getting from the show’s version, or at least from this still-frame, is that Egwene and her companions are hunting Rand themselves, and will engage him in battle. Whereas in the books, this stage of the Test is built around Egwene’s fear of Darkfriends amongst the Aes Sedai, I think the show will make her greatest fear the future that awaits Rand (not to mention the whole world), if she can’t figure out how to stop him from going mad like all male channelers before him: and to that end, I think Rand will kill the alternate universe versions of Elayne and/or Nynaeve in his madness, with Egwene narrowly escaping.

Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor and Daniel Henney as Lan Mandragoran in The Wheel Of Time. They stand back-to-back on a mountaintop, practicing sword forms. Rand has short reddish-brown curly hair and wears a gray shirt with rolled-up sleeves and dark trousers. Lan has black hair in a top-knot. He wears a gray long-sleeved shirt and gray trousers.
Rand and Lan | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Next up, we see Rand practicing sword forms with Moiraine’s Warder, Lan Mandragoran — a scene from the first chapter of book two, The Great Hunt, that didn’t make it into season two, although Rand did pick up a few moves from an elderly blademaster in the city of Cairhien, and Lan taught him one of the better-known forms, ‘Cat Crosses The Courtyard’, before his audience with the Amyrlin Seat. Fans of their relationship will be pleased to have the sword training subplot picked up again, and hopefully afforded a little more time and space, in season three. This was one of two clips shown to the audience at CCXP (the other being a preview of the battle in Tar Valon), and descriptions of the footage place Moiraine and Egwene in the same scene, suggesting that this takes place during their journey from Tar Valon to the Aiel Waste.

(From left to right) Nukâka Coster-Waldau as Bair, Synnøve Macody Lund as Melindhra, Daniel Henney as Lan Mandragoran, Björn Landberg as Rhuarc, Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor, and Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred, standing on a rugged hilltop in a desert under a cloudless sky. Bair has long white hair and wears a white dress with a hood and shawl. Melindhra has blonde hair under a brown hood, and wears lightweight brown leather armor, a skirt of tassels, and brown pants, with three short spears strapped to her back. Lan wears a gray hood and baggy gray tunic. Rhuarc has red hair under a sand-brown hood, with brown leather armor and trousers made from a coarse brown fabric. Rand has short curly reddish-brown hair and wears a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, dark trousers, and a sword strapped to his back. Moiraine has long brown hair under a large hat, and wears a brown shawl over a sand-brown top, with a long gray dress.
(left to right) Bair, Melindhra, Lan, Rhuarc, Rand, and Moiraine | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

This reverse angle of the opening shot from the teaser trailer gives us our first look at several new characters from the Aiel Waste, including Nukâka Coster-Waldau as the Wise One Bair, Synnøve Macody Lund as the Malkieri refugee turned Maiden of the Spear Melindhra, and Björn Landberg as clan chief of the Taardad Aiel, Rhuarc. The teaser reveals that they’re looking out over Rhuidean, a city built shortly after the Breaking of the World, the ruins of which have been put to use by the Aiel as a testing ground for women training to become Wise Ones and men looking to become clan chiefs. The city is home to several ter’angreal, magical constructs with specific functions, including one that shows visions of possible directions a person’s life may take, and another that allows a person to relive historical events through the eyes of their ancestors. Rand’s journey to fulfil the prophecies of the Dragon Reborn will lead him through Rhuidean, while Moiraine will learn there what steps she must take to keep him alive until the Last Battle.

Rhuidean is widely regarded as one of the most memorable sequences in the entire fourteen-volume book series, and while I expect it to play out a bit differently in the show for a number of reasons (namely, the apparent absence of Mat Cauthon and the inclusion of Moiraine’s perspective), I hope what we get from the adaptation is similarly rich and immersive. The show has tried to simplify Robert Jordan’s complex magic system and worldbuilding for general audiences, but three seasons in, if you’re still watching, chances are you’re already invested in the story and won’t be turned off suddenly by an influx of new information.

Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred, standing in a desert, channeling golden threads of the One Power into a glowing orb she's holding out in front of her. She has long dark brown hair, and a blue gemstone on a slender gold diadem sits upon her brow. She wears an intricate gold lattice-work chest-piece over a sleeveless blue dress.
Moiraine Damodred | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Moiraine channels golden threads of the One Power into a glowing sphere, potentially a miniature version of one of the two enormous crystal balls that collectively form the ‘Choedan Kal’, a sa’angreal (an object that allows a channeler to channel more of the One Power than they would normally be able to). The Choedan Kal is the most powerful sa’angreal ever made, and requires two ter’angreal to unlock it, referred to as access keys. I suspect what we’re looking at in the image above is Moiraine attempting to unlock the Choedan Kal using just one of the keys,  possibly during a confrontation with Lanfear or another of the Forsaken.

Olivia Williams as Morgase Trakand and Shohreh Aghdashloo as Elaida, walking side-by-side down a corridor in the White Tower, between rows of soldiers in red-and-gold uniforms and Novices in white dresses. Morgase has short blonde hair under a gold tiara encrusted with rubies. She wears a large white heart-shaped lace collar, and a long-sleeved white lace coat over a long dark red gown. Elaida has short jet-black hair. She wears a crimson coat over a dark red gown with a heavy gold necklace, large gold earrings, gold bracelets on both arms, and multiple gold rings.
Morgase and Elaida | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

Queen Morgase Trakand of Andor and her Aes Sedai advisor Elaida do Avriny a’Roihan make their debut in this shot of the two entering the White Tower, presumably looking for Morgase’s daughter Elayne, who as far as they’re aware is still missing after being kidnapped from the Tower by Liandrin in season two and whisked away to Falme on the other side of the world. By the time they arrive, I fully expect Elayne to be long gone from Tar Valon, this time on a top-secret mission to the city of Tanchico, hunting Liandrin and her cabal of Darkfriends (more on that in a minute). The ensuing stand-off between Morgase and Siuan is only recounted after the fact in the books, but leads to Elayne giving Mat Cauthon a letter to take to her mother in the city of Caemlyn before she sets out again, which ends up being a surprisingly fun little subplot; not crucial by any means, so I won’t be shocked if it’s cut from the show, but what is crucial is the emergence of Mat’s luck (he’s essentially got the same powers as Marvel Comics’ Domino), through episodes like the quarterstaff fight with the Trakand boys, the chase across the rooftops of Tar Valon, and the encounter with Aludra the Illuminator, which are all part of this subplot.

Morgase’s advisor Elaida, an Aes Sedai of the increasingly powerful Red Ajah that oversees the systematic extermination of male channelers, is someone to keep an eye on – and not just because The Wheel Of Time was fortunate enough, speaking of luck, to nab Oscar-nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo for this role. Elaida is one of the most important characters in the entire series, a complex antagonist to Siuan Sanche who sees herself as the leader the Aes Sedai desperately need if they’re to defeat the Dark One at the Last Battle: because they’re sure as hell not going to rely on a male channeler like Rand al’Thor, not if Elaida has any say in the matter. The White Tower she’ll be returning to in the show, after years of living in Caemlyn, is one that will have just been rocked to its foundations by an attack from within. The Red Ajah, which Liandrin belonged to, will be eager to pin the blame on Siuan, but needs a charismatic representative with no connections to Liandrin to make the argument. There’s no better moment for Elaida to step in and fill that role.

Donal Finn as Mat Cauthon, Zoe Robins as Nynaeve al'Meara, and Kae Alexander as Min Farshaw in The Wheel Of Time, standing in a smoky room amongst a crowd of colorfully costumed revelers, speaking to a man in a black hat who is handing them something wrapped in a cloth. Mat has short dark brown curly hair and a patchy beard. He wears an oversized frilly maroon coat over a low-collared saffron-yellow shirt. Nynaeve, standing beside him with her hand on his arm, has long dark hair in a braid and dark eye makeup. She wears a red, black and gold long-sleeved dress with shoulder cutouts. Min has black hair in a slicked-back mullet, with a black-and-white headwrap. She wears a black leather bolero over a black-and-gold top, and a gray dress with pockets. She has a throwing knife in a small scabbard on the front of her belt.
Mat, Nynaeve, and Min | Twitter @TheWheelofTime

In the books, book three to be precise, Siuan assigns Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne with a top-secret mission: following Liandrin to the city of Tear, where (unbeknownst to Siuan) Liandrin is going to try and capture Rand with the help of the Forsaken Be’lal, who is disguised as a High Lord of Tear. Mat, as I mentioned, goes to Caemlyn to deliver Elayne’s letter to the Queen, but while there, learns that the girls are walking into a trap, and makes his way to Tear in the company of the gleeman Thom Merrilin. Liandrin ends up escaping to the city of Tanchico, where Nynaeve and Elayne continue their hunt for her in book four, The Shadow Rising, with Thom as their escort, while Egwene goes to the Aiel Waste with Rand. The television adaptation is, as far as I can tell, having Nynaeve and Elayne head straight to Tanchico from Tar Valon, bypassing Tear entirely, and Mat will be joining them – though whether from the outset of their adventure or, as in book three, after realizing that they’re in danger and coming to save them, remains to be seen. There’s a very strong chance that Tanchico is where we’ll be reunited with Thom, last seen on the show in season one and presumed dead by much of the general audience, but returning at long last for season three. And obviously but rather oddly, the seer Min Farshaw is here as well.

Tanchico is the capital city of the nation of Tarabon, which in recent years has been torn to pieces by a civil war instigated and prolonged by the Whitecloaks in neighboring Amadicia, who hope to destabilize the region (in the books, the reason why the Whitecloaks are in Falme is to try and set up another vassal state north of Tarabon with which to slowly blockade the larger nation into submission). Tarabon has two rulers, a male King and an elected female ‘Panarch’, who governs from a palace complex in the hills above Tanchico. This palace houses the world’s largest museum, containing relics dating back thousands of years to before the Breaking of the World – including several ter’angreal. Is one of these the object wrapped in cloth that Mat, Nynaeve and Min are seemingly looking to purchase or barter for in the image above? And who is the man they’re dealing with, anyway? My bet’s on Juilin Sandar, the rat-catcher whom the girls hire to spy for them in Tear.

Well, that’s everything. What I’m hoping to see from the next batch of images released by Amazon is our first look at what’s going on in the Two Rivers, along with some more new characters like Faile Bashere and Gawyn Trakand, and familiar faces like Thom Merrilin, Tam al’Thor, Liandrin Guirale, Moghedien, Verin Mathwin, Dain Bornhald, and Logain Ablar. How about you? Who or what got you most hyped out of these new images and who or what are you still hoping to see before season three arrives this coming March? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

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Shohreh Aghdashloo Joins “The Wheel Of Time” As Elaida

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME UP TO BOOK FOUR: THE SHADOW RISING, AND SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON THREE, AHEAD!

Some surprises are not lessened for having been spoiled well over a year in advance, and Shohreh Aghdashloo being cast as Elaida in The Wheel Of Time season three is certainly one of those. Aghdashloo, an immensely talented Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning actress best known for her roles in sci-fi drama The Expanse and HBO’s The Batman prequel series The Penguin (and for her distinctive, gravelly voice, which she has lent to animated series Arcane: League Of Legends, fantasy film Damsel, and video game Assassin’s Creed: Mirage), is a huge get for Prime Video’s adaptation of Robert Jordan’s fourteen-volume epic fantasy series, standing on equal footing with star Rosamund Pike and guest star Sophie Okonedo (both Oscar-nominees). And fans have been waiting for this announcement for a very….very long time.

Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala in The Expanse. She has long dark hair in a braid. She is wearing a red-and-gold sari.
Shohreh Aghdashloo in The Expanse | imdb.com

It all began back in December of 2021, while The Wheel Of Time was airing its first season and The Expanse was airing its sixth and last. Both shows being on the Prime Video home page resulted in a lot of crossover between the two fandoms, and people started fan-casting Aghdashloo as various characters from The Wheel Of Time books who had yet to appear in the show, particularly the cantankerous sorceress Cadsuane Melaidhrin. Aghdashloo took notice and even brought it to Wheel Of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins’ attention, tagging him in a fateful tweet that read: “Hi, @rafejudkins, the fans say, we need to talk”. Judkins responded: “Girl, I’m in. I don’t know how to use Twitter but if I did I would DM you. You’ve been on my mood board for a certain character since 2018 haha”.

We now know that the character Judkins had in mind was not Cadsuane at all, but rather Elaida do Avriny a’Roihan, an even more important character in the books who takes an antagonistic role to protagonists Rand al’Thor and Egwene al’Vere, not because she’s a Darkfriend, but because she genuinely (and mistakenly) believes she’s the most qualified person to lead the fight against the Dark One. Elaida is a divisive character: some readers (myself included) regard her as one of The Wheel Of Time‘s most compelling villains, while others find her unbearable or almost comically misguided. I am nonetheless confident that the adaptation which somehow turned us all into Liandrin Guirale redemption arc truthers will give us a reason to begrudgingly sympathize with Elaida, maybe even root for her. Aghdashloo’s casting makes it a near-certainty that her shenanigans will be more entertaining to watch than they sometimes are to read about, that’s for sure.

Elaida is a member of the Aes Sedai, the order of female channelers (sorceresses) who have historically used their considerable power to try and repair a world that was deeply fractured three-thousand years earlier during the Breaking, when all the male Aes Sedai went mad and turned on each other. Elaida belongs to the Red Ajah, the largest faction of the present-day Aes Sedai, whose primary task is to hunt down male channelers and subdue them before they can go mad and cause another Breaking. Elaida is one of the most powerful Aes Sedai alive, equal in strength to Moiraine Damodred and Siuan Sanche, and at one point seemed to have her eye on ascending to the Amyrlin Seat (the leadership position which Siuan currently holds). It therefore came as a shock to many when Elaida abruptly moved to the nation of Andor and became the full-time advisor to Queen Morgase Trakand, seemingly conceding the Seat and ending her promising career in Aes Sedai politics. What none realized was that Elaida had the rare Talent of Foretelling, and had seen in a vision that the royal line of Andor would be the key to victory in the Last Battle: which she interpreted to mean Morgase’s daughter, Elayne Trakand, who can channel and is indeed stronger than Elaida herself.

Wide shot of the Hall of Sitters in the White Tower, from The Wheel Of Time. A woman in a long red gown is sitting on the Amyrlin Seat, with a dark-haired woman in a white dress sitting on the armrest at her left hand.
The Amyrlin Seat | youtube.com

Elayne began training at the White Tower in season two, and was almost immediately kidnapped by Liandrin Guirale, an Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah and secretly a member of the unofficial Black Ajah made up entirely of Darkfriends. Her abduction was covered up, and Liandrin was consequently able to avoid being caught for a time, but season three opens – Rafe Judkins has said this, the teaser trailer confirmed it, and footage from the sequence was shown to CCXP attendees – with Liandrin finally being exposed, and subsequently activating a whole bunch of Black Ajah sleeper agents amongst the Aes Sedai to help her escape punishment. The ensuing massacre (my word choice, but that’s what it looks like to me) will rock the Tower to its core; and amidst the upheaval that must surely follow, Elaida will return at long last, probably looking for Elayne and instead finding the Aes Sedai in total disarray, enflaming in her a fierce desire to fix the Tower, even (or perhaps especially) if that means getting rid of Siuan Sanche and replacing her with a more competent, capable leader, someone like…oh, I don’t know, Elaida herself.

To say any more would require me to get into major spoilers for The Shadow Rising, the book being adapted in The Wheel Of Time season three, so I’ll leave it there and let you discover what happens next when The Wheel Of Time returns on March 13th, 2025. In the meantime, share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

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First Poster For “The Wheel Of Time” Season 3 Drops Ahead Of CCXP

SPOILERS FOR THE WHEEL OF TIME BOOK FOUR: THE SHADOW RISING, AHEAD!

The Wheel Of Time, Amazon Prime’s best epic fantasy series that hardly anyone seems to know about, is returning for its third season sometime soon, by the looks of it. With showrunner Rafe Judkins and stars Josha Stradowski and Madeleine Madden scheduled to take the stage at CCXP in Brazil this Saturday to discuss season three and drop the release date (confirmed by Judkins over on his Instagram), and a new poster dropping this morning, there’s excitement in the air as it feels suddenly plausible that the Dragon Reborn might be back on our screens early in the new year.

First poster for The Wheel of Time season three, depicting Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor walking through a desert between rows of standing spears that cast long shadows in the early morning light. He is carrying Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred in his arms. Rand has short reddish-brown hair and wears a short-sleeved sand-brown shirt with brown trousers. He has dragon tattoos spiraling down his bare forearms. Moiraine, whose face is turned away from the camera, has long brown hair and wears a sand-brown blouse and a gray dress.
The Wheel Of Time | Twitter @TheWheelOfTime

The poster – our first look at season three since the short video celebrating a wrap on filming early this year – is beautiful, which is something I haven’t necessarily been able to say of previous posters for the series…not that they were ever bad, but they were “floating head” posters, and I felt like the show’s marketing team could have cooked up something a little more visually arresting to entice audiences, who made The Wheel Of Time Prime Video’s most watched original series debut of 2021 but didn’t show up as strongly for season two in 2023 despite much better reviews for the season, in large part because the marketing was non-existent. The actors and writers literally couldn’t talk about the show or promote it at the time due to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and Amazon did virtually nothing to fill the void. We don’t know how season two performed in the eyes of Amazon executives, but with season four yet to be greenlit, I think it’s safe to assume that they’re waiting for season three to come out first and do well before they commit to continuing the sprawling story; which was planned to run for eight seasons, condensing fourteen books worth of source material.

So the marketing can’t suck this time around – and if this poster is anything to go by, I’m cautiously optimistic that it won’t. So let’s discuss the poster itself.

The image seems obviously designed to eventually double as a book cover for The Shadow Rising, the fourth volume in Robert Jordan’s saga, which The Wheel Of Time season three will be adapting (having consolidated most of the relevant parts of books two and three into its second season). Depicting Stradowski’s character Rand al’Thor walking through a steel forest of standing spears in a desert at dawn, carrying Rosamund Pike’s Moiraine Damodred in his arms, the poster follows through on the promise made in season two to shift focus away from Moiraine, the series’ protagonist throughout its first season, and onto Rand, the books’ protagonist, who has reluctantly accepted that he is the “Dragon Reborn” destined to save the world or destroy it, and must now complete the vague prophecies written about him centuries before his birth if he is to defeat the Dark One at the Last Battle and prevent the very fabric of reality from being torn apart.

The poster transports us to one of the books’ harshest settings, the Waste, home to twelve warring clans who collectively make up the Aiel. Rand is, as the show has already revealed, the son of an Aiel Maiden of the Spear named Shaiel, who died giving birth to him on the field of battle during the Aiel War, in which a coalition of Aiel clans under the command of Chief Janduin of the Taardad invaded the Westlands to exact vengeance for the killing of a sacred tree (long story). Janduin is Rand’s father, making him half-Aiel. Wait, didn’t I say that Rand’s parents are both Aiel? I’ll let the show explain that.

Close-up image of Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor. He has a shaved head, and is wearing a dark blue coat with ornate gold embroidery over an open-collared white shirt. He is channeling red and gold threads of the One Power into a web that spirals around his upper body. He has a sword strapped to his back.
Rand al’Thor | nerdist.com

In The Wheel Of Time season two, we met Aiel Maiden of the Spear Aviendha (played by Ayoola Smart) as she led an expeditionary force back into the Westlands to find the prophesized savior of the Aiel, the Car’a’carn or “Chief of Chiefs”, who turned out to also be Rand al’Thor. In season three, presumably just as in the books, Rand will decide to follow her into the Waste and help his people in their hour of need, against Moiraine’s wishes. His journey will take him to the ruined city of Rhuidean, built in ages past by Aes Sedai to house a treasure trove of powerful tar’angreal (magical objects) and the secret histories of the Aiel. But in the Waste, Rand will encounter opposition not only from the Dark One’s most powerful minions, but from leaders of the Aiel who dispute and challenge his claim to be the Car’a’carn, including a hotheaded clan chief and an ambitious Wise One (the Aiel equivalent to an Aes Sedai) who join forces to take him down.

Eagle-eyed fans will have noticed right away that Rand is sporting some new tattoos on his arms in the season three poster, which have great significance but are kinda a spoiler, so I won’t give away too much. Let’s just say, the process of obtaining those tattoos is an arduous one, and comprises one of the most memorable sequences in the entirety of Jordan’s saga, a sequence I hope The Wheel Of Time can do justice, as I firmly believe that it could single-handedly put the show on the map, so to speak. If not, The Shadow Rising still has plenty of other outstanding moments that could also do the trick (it is regarded by many fans as the best book in the series), some of which I’m looking forward to even more, but that particular sequence has the potential to be uniquely brilliant on every level. I already know Stradowski’s gonna kill it; it’s just a question of whether the show’s writing, direction, cinematography and production design are able to match the energy he’s going to bring.

Ragga Ragnars as Bain, Ayoola Smart as Aviendha, and Maja Simonsen as Chiad standing in a row in a dimly-lit room with stone walls. All three have long reddish-brown hair and wear lightweight brown leather armor over sand-brown garments with hoods and black scarves. They have spears strapped to their backs and small bucklers at their sides.
Bain, Aviendha, and Chiad | lrmonline.com

Oh, and as for why Rand is holding Moiraine in his arms, well, I have my theories. Which I will not be sharing at this time, because again, that would require spoilers and the source material is just obscure enough that I don’t feel comfortable revealing everything that happens even though it’s been over thirty years since The Shadow Rising‘s publication. I envy those of you who will be watching the season with fresh eyes, completely unaware of what’s coming. Because everything I’ve seen thus far – i.e. this poster – tells me it’s gonna be great.

What do you think of the poster, and what are you hoping gets revealed or shown during Saturday’s CCXP panel? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!