The Wheel of Time: Moving ahead clockwise

Amazon Studios' epic fantasy series, The Wheel of Time, has opened to positive reviews. The series' producers, Mike Weber and David Brown say that they owe a big chunk of the success to its showrunner, Rafe Judkins.

An adaptation of Robert Jordan's bestselling novel series of the same name, the series is headlined by Rosamund Pike. Showrunner Judkins has also adapted the novels for the screen, apart from executive producing. On choosing the showrunner, Weber said that Judkins' command of the material and affinity for the big themes and characters in the series blew them away. "He has such a strong vision of how the show should be that it's a very easy path to follow for all of us. When I saw what Rafe did in really focusing the narrative and highlighting the characters that I had come to fall in love with after reading the books, the story came alive for me in a way that it hadn’t even just reading the books for the first time,” he says.

The Wheel of Time is set in a world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to wield it. The series follows Pike's character Moraine Damodred, a member of a powerful, all-female organisation 'Aes Sedal', who goes on a journey across the world with five young people, one of whom she believes might be the reincarnation of a person prophesied to save or destroy humanity. Weber says that the Rafe was able to pull forward some character threads that made the series more impactful. "Because I think the challenge for any fantasy property is to make that classic fantasy plot feel fresh and new at every turn," he says.

Calling Rafe an "exciting showrunner", Brown says, "He brings a completely deep-seated and emotional connection with the books.".

The Wheel of Time is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video in English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. The series is a co-production between Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television.