Summary
After news broke thatAmazon Prime Videowouldn’t be renewingThe Wheel of Timeafter Season 3 aired its finale last month, fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, who finished authorRobert Jordan’s book series, expressed his disappointment for the show’s fan base, “who deserved better” than its cancellation after a great third installment.The Wheel of Timeis an adaptation of the fantasy book series by Jordan, which stars a stellar cast led by Rosamund Pike as the powerful Aes Sedai, Moiraine, whose performance as Amy Dunne in David Fincher’sGone Girlearned her an Academy Award nomination.
Due to some fans ofThe Wheel of Timebooks kicking up a fuss regarding controversial changes from its source material, like its rushed pacing, a lack of significant focus on key characters, and its all-important lore, the show’s first two seasons were less than favorable among its fandom. However, Season 3 still got the go-ahead and, thankfully, fans felt like this time around, its creators finally got the balance right between good storytelling and engaging scenes between its characters. Sadly, that happy moment was short-lived asAmazon then decided that returning to the series for a fourth run wouldn’t make financial senseafter “lengthy deliberations” about the future of the fantasy show, even though many executives reportedly liked the idea of continuing it.
Brandon Sanderson Says The Wheel of Time Fans ‘Deserved Better'
In the comment section of a recentYouTube videotalking about Dragonsteel Nexus, author Brandon Sanderson answered a fan’s question regarding whether he had anything to say aboutThe Wheel of Timeshow being canceled. Sanderson surprisingly replied, stating that he didn’t know that the show wouldn’t be coming back after its third season at the same time as fans did, but he did know that the series' showrunners were “renegotiating” and that they “thought it would work out.” Sanderson also said that he thought it was disappointing that fans wouldn’t get to see a continuation of the series and that they “deserved better than a cancellation after the best season.” Adding in his personal opinion, the fantasy writer did say that now with the show canceled, he “won’t miss being largely ignored” by the showrunners, stating that he felt they only wanted his name attached toThe Wheel of Timefor “legitimacy, but not to involve me in any meaningful way.”
“I wasn’t really involved. Don’t know anything more than what is public. They told me they were renegotiating and thought it would work out. Then I heard nothing for 2 months. Then learned this from the news like everyone else. I do think it’s a shame, as while I had my problems with the show, it had a fanbase who deserved better than a cancellation after the best season. I won’t miss being largely ignored; they wanted my name on it for legitimacy, but not to involve me in any meaningful way.”
Sanderson wasn’t the only one who thought thatThe Wheel of TimeSeason 3 was the adaptation’s best season yet, as fans and critics also thought the same. While season one received a decent enough 81% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, its audience gave it a mediocre 61%. Thankfully, season 2’s score improved quite a bit, with an audience rating of 81% and 86% from the critics. However, season 3 was when the series ironically hit a home run with a near-perfect score of 97% from critics and 83% from fans. Sadly, though, this wasn’t enough to save the show as it had already drifted deep into the cancellation pool, even though fans did their best bystarting up a website dedicated to a petition called ‘Save WOT’.
Fans were then recently hit with another batch of sad news thatThe Wheel of Timewasn’t getting picked up by another network. It now seems as though, at least for the immediate future and maybe ever, thatThe Wheel of TimeTV series really is out of time and that season 3 was likely its last outing.
