The Wheel of Time's Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney on Building the Unique Relationship Between Aes Sedai and Warder

The Wheel of Time features a unique and complicated relationship between two of its core characters. In the opening moments of the upcoming Amazon Prime series, viewers are introduced to Rosamund Pike's Moiraine, a member of the Aes Sedai. Moiraine, like all Aes Sedai, is capable of channeling the One Power to perform impressive feats of magic. And like all Aes Sedai, she's also paired with a Warder, a warrior who serves as both steward and bodyguard magically bonded to her by magic. The relationship between Moiraine and her Warder, Lan (played by Daniel Henney) is one of the central relationships in the show, driven not by romance, but rather a deep loyalty and platonic love. 

During a press junket for the series, ComicBook.com spoke to Pike and Henney about the relationship between the two characters and how they brought it to life on screen. "I think we did it together, didn't we?" said Henney. "We looked at various facets of it. We went from focusing on movement together for some of the bigger action sequences, focusing on the choreography and the movement together." 

Henney also noted that he and Pike discussed the unique relationship that the pair share."Also, from the first time we spoke together, we discussed the idea of the love that these two will have on screen," Henney said. "It's different than any love you've seen before. It's platonic, but it's much deeper than that. I see it sometimes almost like identical twins, how they can feel things that each other feels -- emotions, pain, suffering. He knows when she's angry, she's hungry, she's afraid. And the scripts are so wonderfully written that it helped us build the relationship, but we came at it from various different angles."

"We thought if we really got to know each other well, we could make tiny moments count," Pike added. "I can just begin to turn to tell him something and he's already off doing it. I think an audience will come to recognize and appreciate all the micro-things we do. We know each other pretty well, because we've now spent two years together on set."

The official series description for The Wheel of Time reads: "The Wheel of Time is one of the most popular and enduring fantasy series of all time, with more than 90 million books sold. Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.

Based on Robert Jordan's best-selling fantasy novels, The Wheel of Time was adapted for television by executive producer/showrunner Rafe Judkins. Larry Mondragon and Rick Selvage of iwot productions, Mike Weber and Ted Field of Radar Pictures, Darren Lemke, Marigo Kehoe, and Uta Briesewitz will also serve as executive producers, with Briesewitz set to direct the first two episodes. Rosamund Pike will serve as producer and Harriet McDougal and Brandon Sanderson as consulting producers. The Wheel of Time is co-produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television."

Season 1 of Amazon Prime's The Wheel of Time series will debut on November 19th.