The Wheel of Time has become the most successful original series in the history of Prime Video.
The news, which had been circulating behind the scenes for a while, was let out via social media. Amazon had previously committed to merely saying that the show was their most successful Prime Original of 2021, outperforming shows like Invincible and Clarkson's Farm. However, the updated information paints an even broader picture of success, confirming that the show has outdone the launch and premieres of series including The Man in the High Castle, The Expanse, The Boys, Carnival Row, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The Grand Tour.
The news will be a welcome one to Amazon Prime Video and Sony Television, who took something of a gamble on greenlighting the show with a budget of over $10 million per episode and filming on multiple locations across Europe, based on a series of fifteen novels that have sold around 90 million copies and have passionate fans around the world.
It also bodes well for Amazon's commitment to genre programming. Although The Expanse is wrapping up after three seasons on the streamer, Carnival Row is due to launch its second season next year and The Boys its third. More germanely, Amazon is also planning to launch its Lord of the Rings prequel series, about the Second Age of Middle-earth, on 2 September 2022. With a budget conservatively estimated at three times that of Wheel of Time (and possibly a lot more), there's a huge amount riding on that project. Wheel of Time getting more people watching Amazon Prime's video channel can only be a good thing for that project.
The Wheel of Time has already been renewed for a second season, which is now more than halfway through shooting in the Czech Republic, although contrary to some reports it has not yet been renewed for a third. With this news, that now seems inevitable. The final episode of the first season will drop this coming Friday.
Awesome! Really enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteMy hopes for season 2 include better editing, better pacing and more focus on Rand, Mat, Perrin, etc - Loial's hair is odd, maybe he runs into a hair singer in Fal Dara that can fix it, lol.
I would assume I'm different from most fans - I really want them to change a lot in the show because honestly books three through six are the only great books in the series in my opinion they could ignore most of books 7 through 14 and I'd be delighted especially sanderson's contribution, what an atrocity A Memory of Light was, still upset I paid $25 for that POS