Summary
Things started out pretty well for the TV seriesThe Wheel of Time, which is adapted from the novel series by author Robert Jordan. Even though some critics and fans of its fantasy world criticized season 1 for its rushed and predictable narrative, it did well enough onAmazon Primeto warrant another installment. However, after its third season, which ironically has been cited as its best season, Amazon called it quits and canceled any further development, causing an eruption of grief among its dedicated and loyal fan base.
Not willing to take this disappointing news lying down,The Wheel of Timedevotees ended up creating an entire website dedicated to a petition called ‘Save WOT’, in which to showcase how much love there still is for the series and to convince another streaming platform to pick it up. With almost 130 thousand signatures at the time of writing, the campaign shows off fans' desire for a season 4, deeming it unfair that the series won’t get a continuation of its story. The site also showshow wellWheel of Timeseason 3 has donecompared to other shows likeHouse of the Dragonseason 2,The Witcher 3, andRings of Powerseason 2, seemingly soaring above the other three fantasy shows with a score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it seems like even this hasn’t been enough.
As reported recently onTV Line,The Wheel of Timeis reportedly not being shopped around to other streamers, cable networks, or platforms after Amazon Prime’s cancellation of season 4. Despite fans' outcry and the thousands of signatures for its story to be picked up by another network, it seems as though season 3 really was the show’s final outing.The Wheel of Timeadapted around five novels from Robert Jordan’s books throughout its three seasons, and with 14 in the complete series, it’s certainlya crying shame that these are now highly unlikely to see the light of dayon the small screen.
Fans ofThe Wheel of Timehave even called forThe Rings of Powerto be cancelled instead, stating that the Middle-earth show is nowhere near as good asWheel of Time, even though it received a much bigger production budget andhas been greenlit for a third season. Other fans of the series think thatAmazon endingThe Wheel of Timemarks a huge hole in the fantasy TV genre, stating that a drought of good, big-budget magical fantasy series has now taken effect.
SinceHBO’sGame of Thronesshowcased such incredible successacross its eight seasons, networks have been keen to duplicate the same success with fantasy shows likeThe Witcher, His Dark Materials, andThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, but never quite reaching the glory of the iconic series. Whether that’s to do with the lasting effects of the Covid pandemic or larger problems like patience remains to be seen, but for a series that was doing so well in its third season to then get cancelled, it certainly paves the way for a bleak future for the fantasy TV genre.
