Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time actor Dónal Finn, who takes over the role of Matrim Cauthon from Barney Harris recently admitted the upcoming second season deviates from how Robert Jordan depicted Mat’s story in the novels.
Speaking with LRM Online, Dónal Finn was asked by Gig Patta, “Tell us about playing the role of Mat for Season 2 and does it deviate from the books?”
Finn responded, “It feels great to like be playing him. I recognize him as a really special and lovable character. I can see how so much of the fans they kind of that the qualities that they kind of love. And I think the approach of kind of playing him, naturally things kinda do deviate a little bit from the books just because of how the story has to jump around to facilitate like everyone at certain moments in time.”
“But I think it’s, I think, you know, for me it’s kind of useful that the point in time at we meet Mat is that he’s almost in a moment of recovery that does come later in the books,” Finn continued. “But I think, you know, [showrunner] Rafe [Judkins] in the introduction to me was kind of saying that it’s a perfect moment for a kind of a new emergence of Mat. And it made sense for me to kind of pick it up from that point.”
“I think that was a harmonious chance or opportunity and I think, yeah, it was nice to kind of to play this character, but to meet him at this point in time,” Finn concluded. “To pick him up at this moment just felt like a great chance for me to kind of bring something new when Mat is in a time of self-discovery and change.”
Along with Finn confirming Mat’s journey in the show deviates from the novel, Marcus Rutherford provided more information on what Perrin Aybara will get up to in the second season.
He stated, “I think Perrin finds himself with this sort of army of the Shienarans, and there’s a whole multitude of different characters that he interacts with, has banter with, and who kind of challenge him in different ways.”
“And, yeah, I think he has that kind of vengeful feeling towards Padan Fain that we kind of met at the end of season one and, I don’t know, there’s just a new maturity to season two, and when I think you see Perrin amongst all these soldiers I think it kind of sets the tone for the look of season two,” he added.
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When asked if Perrin finds his new abilities/powers a curse or a blessing, Rutherford responded, “I think a curse, I think at the moment. I think how he kind of sees them, these new kind of abilities that he has, I think he is very wary very of them. I think Perrin’s still kind of a simple lad. He just kind of wants to be that humble blacksmith and all these new abilities and powers are very confusing to him.”
“And this new kind of person who’s introduced them that we find in season two brings a new kind of danger to him. I think brings a new side that he’s kind of trying to hide, a new animalistic side that has a violence within him. And I think these new kind of wolf abilities is something that he’s probably going to try to navigate away from,” he concluded.
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Rutherford previously detailed to Screen Rant’s Owen Danoff that Perrin’s struggle to accept all different sides of his nature was not something that would be a big part of the character’s story in the second season.
He said, “No, I think what’s really lovely about season two is the characters are kind of split up, and I think, in particular, Perrin is kind of by himself quite a lot of the time and kind of introduced to a lot of different characters.”
“And I think some of them kind of introduce and expose kind of new abilities that he has and new kind of powers and this kind of connection that he has with these kind of animals,” he added.
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Rutherford continued, “And then I think other characters that he meets later in the season kind of exposes thoughts and philosophies around violence and warfare. And he has to really question is it something that he can even avoid? Is it something that’s kind of inevitable in the Wheel of Time or something that’s kind of naturally within him?”
“I think it’s really lovely in season two to kind of really delve into these characters a bit more,” he stated. “I think in season one he was just grieving quite a lot and just sort of crying in the corner. So I think it was quite nice to, yeah, explore the character a bit more in season two.”
What do you make of Dónal Finn’s comments regarding Matrim Cauthon in The Wheel of Time Season 2?