Amazon’s Wheel of Time Series Race Swaps Egwene, Perrin, and Nynaeve

Amazon’s upcoming Wheel of Time series will race swap Egwene, Perrin, and Nynaeve.

Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins confirmed casting announcements for the upcoming Amazon adaptation. They cast Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, Zoë Robins as Nynaeve, and Madeleine Madden as Egwene Al’Vere. They also cast Josha Stradowski as Rand al’Thor, and Barney Harris as Mat Cauthon. (Related: Report: Rosamund Pike to Star in Amazon’s Adaptation of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time)

The casting news comes after Rafe Judkins revealed his ideas of how the show was going to handle casting. Judkins posted a script grab that read:

“As much as possible, our cast should look like America will in a few hundred years — a beautiful mix of white, brown, black and everything in between.”

After the casting announcements were made Judkins took to Twitter to write that the casting team “embraced this world and these books fully and found people who perfectly embody these characters.”

Egwene al’Vere was depicted in the comic book adaptation of Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World as white. The series was originally published in 2005 by Dynamite Entertainment, two years before Robert Jordan passed away. (Related: James Wan’s Mortal Kombat Film Race Swaps Raiden and Mileena)

Nynaeve al’Meara was also depicted as white.

Nynaeve al'Meara

So was Perrin Aybara.

Perrin Aybara

These casting decisions also appear to go against the vision of Wheel of Time creator and author Robert Jordan. (Related: Disney Announces Race-Swapped Ariel with Actress Halle Bailey For “Live-Action Reimagining” of The Little Mermaid)

Back in 2014, notes from the Robert Jordan Collection at the College of Charleston revealed the actors he modeled his characters after.

Egwene was described as Audrey Hepburn at age 18. Nynaeve was described as a young Jacqueline Bisset and Perrin Aybara was a young Val Kilmer.

What do you make of these casting announcements? What do you make of the thought process behind the casting decisions for Wheel of Time?

 

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