SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

The initial report was back in 2017:

"On April 20, 2017, it was announced that Sony Pictures Television was producing a new adaptation of the book series in association with Red Eagle Entertainment and Radar Pictures. Rafe Judkins was expected to serve as showrunner for the series and executive produce alongside Rick Selvage, Larry Mondragon, Ted Field, Mike Weber, and Darren Lemke. Robert Jordan’s widow Harriet McDougal was set to serve as a consulting producer.

On October 2, 2018, it was announced that Amazon had given the production a series order. Additionally, it was further announced that Amazon Studios would serve as a production company for the series."

and from your Tor link:

"Producers include Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon from Red Eagle Entertainment; Ted Field and Mike Weber from Radar Pictures; Darren Lemke; and Harriet McDougal, Jordan’s editor and wife. Rafe Judkins serves as executive producer and showrunner."

so it looks like Red Eagle moved the show from Sony to Amazon this year as the same people are involved. Maybe Sony did't want to go ahead with it.

ETA: it says in conjunction with Sony...

initial Tor 2017 report about it:

https://www.tor.com/2017/04/20/the-wh...

yeah, but this one seemed more like it would progress given the players involved.

I really hope it works out, I want to see how this story goes, I just really don't want to read it! lol

hopefully it's not as sanitized as the Sword of Truth series which seemed to be aimed at children

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_...

it could have been good, but wasn't

They've done some pretty "serious" work before, so I think if they're willing to commit, Amazon could be to fantasy what Netflix is (was) to superhero shows.

Amazon’s Man in the High Castle is good, dark, and compelling so they CAN do a book justice.....

Legend of the Seeker was BBC

I thought this list of characters with corresponding actors was pretty amusing https://www.imdb.com/list/ls062727267/ I agree that Sam Elliott would really be great in the role of Thom! And Brad Pitt as Lews Therin was pretty good, too.

Indira Varma would be great and after all, she's through with Game of Thrones now

cast announcement

https://www.tor.com/2019/08/14/wheel-...

prior announcement

https://www.tor.com/2019/06/19/wheel-...

looks like a racially diverse cast which wasn't the idea I got from the books. I thought Rand's village was pretty much all the same racial type

I appreciate that an effort is being made to cast a diverse group of actors to tell this story.

Anthony wrote: "I appreciate that an effort is being made to cast a diverse group of actors to tell this story."

Same. Just because classic fantasy has a tendency towards whiteness doesn’t mean we should keep it going.

I like the cast mostly. Actor who is playing Rand looks nothing like the description in books, but from what I saw on youtube clips there are all solid actors which is much more important in my opinion. People from Emond's field in books have dark hair and dark eyes and not very light skin since its mentioned multiple times that Rand has lighter skin than people of Two Rivers, so that is accurate as well. I'm looking forward to see who they cast for Lan and Thom.

What I'm afraid of is that they won't do the books justice and that they'll just cram multiple books material in one season, like GOT did in its last season and it ruined the show.

As someone who had a very hard time with The Eye of the World, I’m hopeful that good writing and acting can help streamline and clarify some of my issues with the book.

Anthony wrote: "As someone who had a very hard time with The Eye of the World, I’m hopeful that good writing and acting can help streamline and clarify some of my issues with the book."

Yes, this. If we can keep the taverns per season under 20, that would be ideal.

♥♫☻Olivia☻♫♥ wrote: "I like the cast mostly. Actor who is playing Rand looks nothing like the description in books, but from what I saw on youtube clips there are all solid actors which is much more important in my opi..."

then wouldn't Mat look more like Perrin, Engwene and Nynaeve? The actor who plays Rand looks enough like the covers and my image of him (he'll need to grow his hair a bit longer though inho) to work. The actor who plays Perrin looks good too.

Hmmm...I am small concern at a few unconscious stereotypes in the casting but I am interested in them exploring this more!

I'll be curious/nervous if the village is going to be darker skinned/ethnically ambiguous or if it's going to be like "Brandi as Cinderella" level of casting inclusion. Ditto with behind the scenes.

CBRetriever wrote: "♥♫☻Olivia☻♫♥ wrote: "I like the cast mostly. Actor who is playing Rand looks nothing like the description in books, but from what I saw on youtube clips there are all solid actors which is much mor..."

i agree with you on that one, but still if they are good actors I'm willing to forgive the fact they don't look like their book counterparts. But they should have stuck with one ethnicity. Aiel need to be light skined and Seanchan should be dark skinned like in the books. In the books there are no dark skinned Aiel or albino Seanchan and if they change those things it would really grate on my nerves. Books are already really diverse with characters of all skin colors and all characters are three dimensional and fleshed out so there is no need for any changes to be made.

This seems like good news: I can certainly appreciate, that there'll now be an option to enjoying the story without the need to engage in reading one of these intimidating seeming books *hah*

Can I just say: Nikolaj Coster Waldau as Lan Mandragoran.

not morose enough and probably too expensive. I could see an Asian actor in this role

Hmm, with Lan being described as very tall and muscular it would be difficult to find an Asian actor who would fit since they are usually not very tall. As much as I love Jet Li and Tony Leung both of them are too short for that role.

Olivia...I’m sorry but a) height can be cheated for the camera in all sorts of ways... and b) that’s a pretty stereotypical statement...

Anthony wrote: "Olivia...I’m sorry but a) height can be cheated for the camera in all sorts of ways... and b) that’s a pretty stereotypical statement..."

I did say usually, because that is the truth, look up average height per country... You can cheat height on camera, as we can see from LotR movies, but not that well, it was really obvious when children were used in place of actors playing hobbits so that Gandalf would appear much much taller. I'm not saying Asian actors shouldn't be given roles in the show, and I am most certainly not racist if that's your conclusion based on my comments. I'm just saying that Lan's most notable characteristic is his height, he's described as being taller than Rand, so that would be a huge thing to change about him.

err. I know you mean well, Olivia, but I think this is a time to remember this group does not allow stereotypical generalizations and either apologize for what i'm sure was unintentional, or let it drop.

I am curious about who else will get cast! I could see Nikolaj, but he is so associated with GOT I wonder if he's going to branch out from fantasy epics.

Anthony wrote: "Olivia...I’m sorry but a) height can be cheated for the camera in all sorts of ways... and b) that’s a pretty stereotypical statement..."

Kit Harrington was one of the shortest members of the GoT cast other than Arya and Tyrion. Sansa even dwarfed him

ETA: what about Clive Standon from Vikings? He fits my image of Lan. Or Alexander Ludwig with a dye job?

CBRetriever wrote: "Anthony wrote: "Olivia...I’m sorry but a) height can be cheated for the camera in all sorts of ways... and b) that’s a pretty stereotypical statement..."

Kit Harrington was one of the shortest mem..."

Jon Snow's notable characteristic in books is not his height but his hair, so Kit Harrington fit in with the description from the book, he didn't need to be tall (and hair can easily be changed as opposed to height). If Lan is tall in books (and that is repeated constantly on every other page) than he should be tall in the show if the adaptation aims to be at all faithful. I'm not saying everything has to be the same as it is in books, that's impossible really, but some things have to be changed and some things don't.
Clive Standon would be great in the role in my opinion. Alexander Ludwin might be too young for that role, but maybe as Gawyn?

that's a good idea

my point about Jon Snow and Sansa, was that the actor is actually at least 6 inches, if not more, shorter than her, but they filmed the scenes of them together where they appeared to be the same height. It can be done. Look at how they make Tom Cruise appear even taller than he is.

CBRetriever wrote: "that's a good idea

my point about Jon Snow and Sansa, was that the actor is actually at least 6 inches, if not more, shorter than her, but they filmed the scenes of them together where they appear..."

Actually I found that to be done very badly in the show. Sometimes he looked taller than her (when they were standing and talking) and other times he looked shorter (when they were walking and talking). It was very inconsistent throughout the last few seasons.

As long as Lan's got that smolder I'm okay with whatever else. Smolder/brooding is what I'm looking for in a Lan. ;-)

Who would you want to play Moiraine?

Rosamund Pike got the role of Moiraine, and I think that is amazing. I was pretty surprised because I've never seen her in a tv show before

Oh nice! What other casting are we waiting for then (sorry, I must have skimmed!)

If they plan on adapting the whole first book, then Lan, Elayne, Gawyn, Thom, Logain, Elaida, Tam and Elyas. Some don't have a big part in the first book but should still appear in the first season.

I just saw this thread, and thought I'd join in. I actually really like the casting decisions. There are some things like height and build that aren't exactly like the characters, but I can handle that if it's not too egregious. Also, everyone imagines characters differently, so you can't please all the fans.

One thing I noticed was that Mat was different from the rest of the Two Rivers cast, but that's not really far fetched according to the books. I'll put this in spoiler tags, because it definitely spoils some world building aspects, but not necessarily plot.

(view spoiler)[The Breaking of the World in the previous age caused a huge disruption and displacement of land, peoples, and cultures. It was noted a couple times that land masses shifted and changed, splitting up former nations and peoples.

Basically, there may be modern cultures and societies, with people who have a general look to them, but there's still left over variation.

The other thing with the Two Rivers specifically is that they were an ancient Kingdom that was destroyed by Trollocs and overcome by the shadow. After the war, people went back to the area. It's reasonable to assume that not everyone had the same skin and eye color, either because of the Breaking, or after people trickled back in. Over time in a relatively isolated population, people would mix enough to maybe have general characteristics, but there would still be some genetic outliers here and there.

The main characteristics mentioned about Two Rivers people are their dark hair and eyes. So Mat may be descended from a line in the Two Rivers that just happens to be on the lighter side, but still has dark hair and eyes. (hide spoiler)]

Perrins actor needs to bulk up, he's meant to have worked as a smith, but things like height, and hair color can be easily dealt with, my favourite of those cast so far is Egwene, pretty much looks exactly how I imagined, least favourite is Nynaeve, but we'll see if she can act the part, thats just as important, more so for drawing in audiences who've never read the books.

Ben wrote: "Perrins actor needs to bulk up, he's meant to have worked as a smith, but things like height, and hair color can be easily dealt with, my favourite of those cast so far is Egwene, pretty much looks..."

Yeah Perrin's actor being so thin is really the only major flaw I see with any of them. I'm hoping the plan is for him to bulk up some before filming, but it won't ruin it for me.

I think at some point they just have to strike a balance of how much the actor or actress needs to look like the character vs. how well they can play the part.

You can't have a 50 year old play a teenager, but you can have someone that's a bit taller and thinner play Perrin.