The Wheel Of Time Season 2 Release Date, Cast, Trailer, Plot And More Details

Fans anticipating the upcoming fantasy series "The Wheel of Time" now have more to look forward to. Amazon Studios announced in May 2021 that it would produce and distribute a second season of the fantasy series, a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, just days after the first season finished shooting. "Getting a second season order before the first season has even premiered is such a vote of confidence in the work we are doing and the property itself," showrunner Rafe Judkins said in a press release, "and we couldn't be happier to be able to continue to live and work in the world Robert Jordan created."

Adapted from Jordan's sprawling, 14-novel epic, which also includes a prequel and two companion books, "The Wheel of Time" follows the channeller Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a member of an all-female group of magic users, as she uncovers, mentors, and protects the Dragon Reborn, the reincarnation of an ancient and powerful hero who will either save the world or destroy it. Here's what we know about the show's second season — finally on the way after a years-long wait.

Amazon is all in on making "The Wheel of Time" a long-term commitment for its Prime Video streaming service. There's a lot of internal confidence in letting the elaborate and intricate story from Robert Jordan's novels unfold at a slow and deliberate pace. Before Season 1 of "The Wheel of Time" even aired, Amazon ordered Season 2 of the show — right around the time that shooting on the first slate of episodes wrapped in May 2021. That lengthy production period began back in September 2019, as a fantasy show with a large cast and wide scope takes a lot of time to make. 

Season 2 is no exception. Production began in earnest in the Czech Republic in July 2021, and it wrapped in May 2022. With well over a year after principal photography wrapping and the post-production beginning, Amazon finally announced in July 2023 when Season 2 would debut. The eight-episode set of "The Wheel of Time" will begin its Prime Video run on September 1, 2023. And when it does, we'll be getting the first three episodes all on the very same day.

Prime Video's "The Wheel of Time" has a lot of material from which it can pull, and Season 1 of the series leaned heavily on the first book in the series, "The Eye of the World." So where will Season 2 draw its inspiration? Well, according to Prime Video press release, Season 2 will be mostly based on "The Great Hunt," although it states that it will also be "based on some elements of [Robert] Jordan's third novel, 'The Dragon Reborn.'"

It's likely "The Wheel of Time" viewers will see events like the protagonists retrieving the Horn of Valere from Padan Fain, and more of the Seanchan, who debuted near the end of Season 1. And according to the trailer, the Moiraine, Rand, and crew didn't put an end to the Dark One but allowed it to continue to operate by letting its chief advocate get away. Meanwhile, Moiraine will deal with losing her connection to the One Power while her allies set off on different courses in different places to serve similar purposes.

Amazon's press release indicates that Pike is serving as a producer on the show, so it seems that she'll be returning as Moiraine. As for the rest, Deadline wrote that a plethora of actors will be joining Pike in Season 1, including Josha Stradowski, Marcus Rutherford, Zoe Robins, Barney Harris, and Madeleine Madden, plus dozens more. We did say it was a sprawling epic, didn't we?

It is the five aforementioned actors who are worth paying particular attention to, as they will portray the central group whose journey with Moiraine is depicted in the series' first book, "The Eye of the World." Stradowski plays Rand al'Thor, Rutherford plays Perrin Aybara, Robins is Nynaeve al'Meara, Harris is Mat Cauthon, and Madden appears as Egwene al'Vere. Henney will play Lan Mandragoran, known as the greatest swordsman of the age. 

Though the paths of this core fellowship split and diverge throughout the series, for the time being, that group, along with Pike, seems the most likely to return for Season 2. However, a website called The Compendium of "Wheel of Time" Characters says there are 2,782 named characters across the book series, so feel free to let your fan-casting imagination go wild.

In 2018, Amazon announced that its Prime Studios would develop a sweeping, elaborate, and expensive series adaptation of Robert Jordan's bestselling fantasy novel series "The Wheel of Time." Along with that revelation came the news of who would shepherd the massive undertaking: Rafe Judkins, at the time best known for his time as a "Survivor" contestant and work as a staff writer on "Chuck," "Hemlock Grove," and "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." In addition to developing the books into a television entity, Judkins wrote two episodes and served as the showrunner for the series' first season, a role he'll continue for Season 2 of the Prime Video flagship series.

Judkins oversees the day-to-day production on set for "The Wheel of Time" as well as guides the process of adapting Jordan's novels. He leads the team that condenses roughly 200 pages from one of the source novels into roughly an hour or so of small-screen content.

On July 19, 2023, Amazon's Prime Video streaming service released the first official trailer for the long-awaited, significantly delayed second season of its ambitious adaptation of Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" fantasy novels. The trailer begins with Moiraine, agent of the Aes Sedai, keepers of the precious One Power, warning that "Everyone has a choice, and every choice has a consequence." That seems to be the thesis for Season 2 of "The Wheel of Time," which draws on plot and character elements from the second and third books in Jordan's series, "The Great Hunt" and "The Dragon Reborn." Following the events of the end of Season 1, Moiraine, finds herself disconnected from the One Power but not swayed in the least from her mission to continue protecting chosen one, Rand al'Thor, as he develops his powers and stays away from the evil Dark One, not so much defeated but set loose.

Threats abound, from a vengeful-minded Ba'alzamon, to the dogmatically anti-male Red Ajah sect of the Aes Sedai, as well as romance — Moiraine seems to have something developing with Siuan Sanche, head of the Aes Sedai. All these threads will likely come together in an epic way when Season 2 of "The Wheel of Time" arrives in the fall of 2023.