Wheel of Time Showrunner Explains Why Show Made One Big Change From Book

The Wheel of Time’s showrunner explained why he made one major deviation from the lore of the book. Earlier today, The Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins went on Reddit for an AMA. As Redditors peppered him with questions both serious and whimsical about the new show, Judkins did take some time to explain why they made one very major change to the show’s lore. The first book is centered around the search for the reincarnation of the Dragon, a legendary warrior of the Light responsible for the Breaking of the World. While the Dragon is explicitly a male character in the books (in part because men and women draw from separate sources of magic), the show version of The Wheel of Time opens the possibility of the Dragon being a woman. 

During the Reddit AMA, a Wheel of Time fan asked him why the show’s version of Moiraine was considering that the Dragon Reborn was a woman, Judkins noted that it tied to an even bigger change that matched the scope of the series. “The change we made was not just with the fact that a woman could be the Dragon, the core change we made was that people are NOT 100% convinced that these 3000 year old prophecies are 100% accurate,” Judkins wrote on Reddit. “I think it feels a little bit more true to the world, and you see the characters questioning the prophecies of the Dragon and the details of it much more in the show than in the books (although there are some scenes in the books that show this as well, we’ve just expanded on that). It seems quite trusting for the Aes Sedai, who trust no one, and especially Moiraine, who trusts less than no one, to believe with 100% certainty ANYTHING that was written thousands of years ago.”

Given the emphasis on Moiraine during the first season of The Wheel of Time and also the more general skepticism in millennia-old prophecies that were made in the aftermath of a world-breaking event, the change makes a bit more sense given Judkins’ comments. Let us know what you think about this change in the comment section below. 

New episodes of The Wheel of Time are added every Friday on Amazon Prime.