‘Wheel Of Time’ Director And EP Sanaa Hamri Says Show Allows Viewers To Immerse Themselves In Robert Jordan’s World

John F. Trent |

Sep 8, 2023

A scene from Wheel of Time (2023), Prime Video

Wheel of Time director Sanaa Hamri recently admitted that the show provides viewers an opportunity to escape from reality despite the showrunner announcing it would include LGBTQ+ propaganda, the show’s casting being a clear example of woke checkboxes, and a clear injection of gender politics as seen in the idea that the Dragon Reborn could be a woman.

In an in interview with ScreenRant’s Rob Keyes about Prime Video’s second season for The Wheel of Time, Hamri alongside director Thomas Napper discussed the show’s second season, how they are interpreting Jordan’s books and her goal for the series to be an escape from reality.

Keyes asked the duo, “In terms of picking and choosing and organizing which threads or elements from the books to bring in, by the end of season two are we sort of gone through books one through three? Is that a fair sort of assessment?”

Hamri responded, “I would say that we use the books and I’m not trying to speak for the writers and for [showrunner] Rafe [Judkins] but the books are a blueprint and its the world and stories.”

She continued, “Art is about interpretation and having the freedom to interpret how we want to. And that works for the characters and that’s what’s so thrilling about taking such large works such as you know the 14 books of Jordan and being able to have that as our playground. I think that is what’s so special.”

When asked if it would be possible to adapt Jordan’s entire Wheel of Time story, Hamri replied, “I would say the wheel weaves as the wheel wills. And that is our mantra. Because right now it’s about there’s infinite possibilities in the universe and Jordan’s universe is infinite. However, we are focused on season two.”

Keyes would later ask, “Since Season 1 came out the streaming landscape has changed. There’s more bigger, serious takes on the genre. We see it from House of the Dragon, The Rings of Power to this. Does the changing landscape, the bigger competition, I suppose, and I guess also fan feedback does that alter much going into season 2?

Napper answered, “Briefly, I would say I think it’s just a really exciting time to be in the genre. To see the work that’s being produced by other companies, it just adds to the kind of excitement of working on this show. It means that the bar is high and the expectation of the audience is high.”

He added, “But in truth, Robert Jordan is a universe all on his own. 5,400 named characters across those 14 books. This is not a small world and our focus is truly on Wheel of Time and making these books come to life and these scripts come to life as best we can.”

Hamri then shared, “And you can only be authentic to your baby and really making the best product that you can, and then we put it out in the world. So it’s not about comparisons. I think because of the high fantasy realm, people always bring in all these other shows, but the truth of the matter is, there are a lot of dramas, there are a lot of cop shows, there are a lot of different types of shows that you can watch, comedies, and they’re different.”

“And that’s the whole point, is being able to– I think we’re in a time in the world where we want to be able to escape what is happening now, our reality, and I think these type of shows and the Wheel of Time is a place where you can put your troubles away and just like watch and kind of go into the world of Robert Jordan,” she concluded.

Hamri’s comments are laughable given the show’s showrunner Rafe Judkins made it abundantly clear he planned to continue to push LGBTQ+ propaganda in the show’s second season during a video presentation from JordanCon 2022.

Judkins stated, “I mean, we predominantly in the show have been trying to take things that were suggested or hinted at being LGBTQIA+ relationships in the books and sort of expanding on them, bringing those out, letting us know more about those characters and their feelings for each other.”

“Or taking things that we don’t know what the relationship is between those two people and giving them something,” he asserted.

The showrunner continued, “And I think that’s what we’ll continue to do with the show the whole way through the series. You will see us lean into those places that are already so present in the books and then try to find room to tell more of the emotional history of some of those characters.”

“And a lot of times that will include their relationships with people be they of the same gender, a different one, or ungendered,” he added.

The show’s casting also completely removes immersion for many book readers given Jordan made it abundantly clear that the Two Rivers was a very homogenous village in his books so much so that Rand stood out from them given his red hair and height.

In contrast, Prime Video chose to race swap nearly all of the main characters aside from Matrim Cauthon, Moiraine Damodred, Rand, and Elayne Trakand.

On top of this, the series clearly has numerous other facets of woke ideology injected into it. The main example is the idea that the Dragon Reborn, which was clearly a man in Jordan’s books, could be a woman in this “adaptation.”

The show’s first episode also removes the innocence of the characters and clearly promote promiscuity by heavily implying that Rand and Egwene have sexual relations with each. Something that did not occur in the books.

And it appears that viewers are not watching Wheel of Time to escape reality. In fact, they do not appear to be watching at all based on the latest Samba TV report. The outlet shared their weekly top streaming programs for the week of August 28th through September 3rd. Wheel of Time is nowhere to be found in the top 10. The first three episodes of the second season dropped on Prime on September 1st.

#WhoIsErinCarter leads the charts in the latest #SambaTVWeeklyWrap! #Ahsoka keeps in the top 3 and newcomer, #OnePieceNetflix, makes its debut at number 5.

Read more: https://t.co/UOdnLIeBGv #SambaTVInsights #youaresonotinvitedtomybatmitzvah #AhsokaTano #SpecialOpsLioness… pic.twitter.com/77Kg7J6XUB

— Samba TV (@samba_tv) September 8, 2023