Amazon Prime’s Wheel of Time series has revealed a surprising departure from the book series. Amazon Prime‘s upcoming high fantasy series posted a new teaser on social media today, showing off gleeman Thom Merrilin’s guitar. Similar to the last teaser, the trailer showed the guitar’s design progression, moving from concept art to the real thing. This tease does seem to feature some foreboding music from the upcoming series and ends with a line of dialogue from Thom (Alexandre Willaume), marking on the second time that we’ve actually heard dialogue from the show. You can check out the teaser below:
Something new. #WOTonPrime pic.twitter.com/t1KnW3GZ45
— The Wheel of Time (@WOTonPrime) December 23, 2020
Notably, the guitar is a bit of a departure from the book series, as Thom was an expert harpist and flautist, but never played a guitar. No reason was immediately given for the change, but it’s likely due to practical reasons to keep the series feeling accurate. However, it’ll likely raise some eyebrows from at least a few fans, especially as Thom passes along his instrument to the series’ main protagonist Rand before his supposed death in The Eye of the World. That flute provides Rand and his friend Mat with a means for lodging after they are separated from their friends and allows the pair to make their way to the city of Caemlyn in a somewhat timely fashion. Showrunner Rafe Judkins promised to address the departures from the book on his Instagram throughout the day.
The Wheel of Time is an adaptation of the book series by the same name, written by Robert Jordan and finished by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan’s death. The series features a group of young adults caught up in a grand prophecy involving the Dragon, a reincarnated champion of Light who will also bring about the supposed Breaking of the World. The world of Wheel of Time is fantastically diverse and complicated, rivalling the size and complexity of worlds in other series like A Song of Ice and Fire or Lord of the Rings. While not as well known in mainstream circles, The Wheel of Time is considered a seminal work of fantasy by many. Several studios have attempted a live action adaptation of Wheel of Time (including a controversial pilot episode that aired on FX in the middle of the night), but Amazon’s is the first to make it to a full series commitment.
No air date has been announced for Amazon’s Wheel of Time, but production is currently underway. The series is expected to be released exclusively on Amazon Prime sometime in 2021.