Wow casting already?! ?
The choice for Rand, Mat and Perrin seem top notch. Nynaeve, too... Egwene? Eh, I guess why not. She looks like she could pull it off. I just hope these people can ACT. That's the main thing. Extra charisma = extra fans!

I admit I always pictured some Tairens and Altarans as dark as the actresses do, with Sea Folk and other Tairens being the darkest people in WoT. Mat's casting looks amazing, but he seems out of place among the others; Rand is supposed to be the only oddball out.

I agree with you, Jagen.

Wonder if the diverse casting means they’ll shake up the entire notion of the ‘races’ being spread across the world with the Breaking.  Wouldn’t be a bad change.

Re: I’m sure they can act.  Global cast with a range of credits; and they clearly didn’t cast on looks alone — so they’ve probably cast a very wide net and pulled who they felt are the absolutely best choices.

What struck me:

A) The actor cast for Mat looks like how I pictured Rand, minus the red hair.  At first I totally assumed that was the casting.

B) Is it me or is Nynaeve the same age as the others?  Makes it a bit more HP if so.

C) I like the pic they chose for Eg.  She’s got an exotic look I didn’t expect from that character — I WANT to see this woman grow powerful in the world.

It might be my imagination but I see in the guys pictures the look I would expect.  Rand seems to be thoughtful and could be brooding.  Matt seems to have that devil-may-care attitude that I he had in the books.  Perrin seems as if someone is asking something of him and he just wants to be left alone.  I have high hopes that these guys can carry this series.  I'm sure that the other leads, if filled with know actors, may help them get their footing.

Well, if they f it up, we can just burn Amazon to the ground and start again.

I can hope since they are going for racial diversity and not by the books that they at least portray the cultural differences well enough that it does not come off as a bland populous through out the series.

I am excited. Looking forward to it. Now all we need is the casting for Lan.

I personally don't want to watch this series. Based off of what I have read about it, it will be almost nothing like the books I fell in love with. I don't think I could handle a TV show that has the same name as my favorite books, and characters with the same names, but is in every other way a completely different animal altogether. I kinda hate Amazon right now; they aren't making the Wheel of Time, they're making a "Game of Thrones" competitor or replacement and frankly it is sickening to see a beautiful, living, thriving world like The Wheel of Time be compared to soft core pornography with medieval cosplay.

I like the casting for Rand, Mat and Perrin, especially Mat... the actress for Egwene seems more exotic than she is described in the book but I hope she acts the part. As for Nynaeve, the appearance of the actress was not as I pictured her in the book but I guess she got the part due to the acting.

I can't wait to see the actors for Lan, Elayne, Thom and Padan Fain. I hope they don't mess up the first season and just stick with the books - there's a ton of material there with no need to invent new ones.

I'm fine with everyone except Perrin.  Marcus needs to bulk up quite a bit.

Seeing the casting I was little unsure, but then seeing some quotes from the book about how Two Rivers folks are described as being dark hair, dark eyed, and dark skinned I am fully in support of the casting decisions as long as the actors are top notch. Especially Mat, he looks perfect for the part.

The actor for Mat does seem to be a fit.  But if the series makes it then that guy will need to adapt and grow.  All the characters evolved quite a bit and hopefully someone has thought this through when picking their actors.

On 8/16/2019 at 2:22 AM, TheBowTiger said:

Seeing the casting I was little unsure, but then seeing some quotes from the book about how Two Rivers folks are described as being dark hair, dark eyed, and dark skinned I am fully in support of the casting decisions as long as the actors are top notch. Especially Mat, he looks perfect for the part.

Except, of course, the quote only talk about hair and eye color, and Elaida need to see his untanned arms to be completely certain Rand is not from the Two Rivers.

They might be great actors, but we are already getting a diverse Two Rivers (they look nothing alike). A big part of RJs world is his diverseness, but that is diverse from region to region and not in the most isolated village in the world.

Either Rafe or the exec's bungled the main casting, and the fear is now that we'll get another Legend or Shannara Chronicle, where they unnecessarily sold out the source material going their own "creative" way.

Still, we'll have to see with the next announcements and when pics of the sets and wardrobes come out. So far all they have done is lowered the expectations for a faithful adaption quite severely and split the fan base.

If you guys aren't sure about Nynaeve looking the part, try googling the actress.  There are better pictures of her's out there.  The ones with flowing hair look the part in my opinion.  Very much like many of the renderings of Nynaeve.  Here's one I found:

I'm more concerned about how Rand doesn't know he's not his fathers son at this point.  Would seem pretty obvious to anyone?  Not sure how they will pull that off:
 

Tam Al Thor - "Well you see son, yer kind of a two rivers albino see...just a recessive gene activating that's all.  Maybe you can roll around in the dirt a bit just in case some ole Aes Sedai come along" 

When Moiraine was cast, I was very excited.  Just about hit it on the nose.  But I am not excited about the new casting.  Mat it perfect.  Rand is acceptable, but the rest are completely off the mark.  It's pretty disappointing.  I sure hope they do a better job for Lan, Elayne, and Thom.  I assure you I am not racist at all.  That has nothing to do with my opinion.  These actors are not right for the people that come alive in the pages of the books for me.  Wheel of Time is my favorite books of my life and I have read a lot in my 60 years.  I really want to love the show.  And I have waited so long for it.

17 hours ago, Danise said:

When Moiraine was cast, I was very excited.  Just about hit it on the nose.  But I am not excited about the new casting.  Mat it perfect.  Rand is acceptable, but the rest are completely off the mark.  It's pretty disappointing.  I sure hope they do a better job for Lan, Elayne, and Thom.  I assure you I am not racist at all.  That has nothing to do with my opinion.  These actors are not right for the people that come alive in the pages of the books for me.  Wheel of Time is my favorite books of my life and I have read a lot in my 60 years.  I really want to love the show.  And I have waited so long for it.

I completely agree.  Moiraine couldn't have been cast better.  These other characters seemed to have been cast as though WoT is just a random YA novel. The Two Rivers is supposed to be an isolated and homogeneous village.  Most people look similar.  It's not supposed to look like it's Manhattan or LA.  If you go to a small European town one in the South or Midwest US (none of which are as isolated as the Two Rivers) you'll see that similarity.  Rand looks a bit different but not even enough to where he's obviously an outcast, just that he takes from his outlander mom (in itself a rarity in the TR). The characters were all surprised to note that Rand (whom they all felt was completely a normal TR youth) looked startlingly like an Aiel. Also, Perrin is supposed to be huge.  With all the people that work out, there isn't one decent actor who's also really buff? I wasn't worried but now I am concerned.  I hope my impressions are wrong.

Lan will have to be younger. After the Epstein affair there's no way Twitter will accept a relationship between an older, powerful king and a 20 year old villager.

It's the same with Rand the his harem... Erhm, I mean his three love interests. 

If the Two Rivers and Andor is like New York, then Elayne can be any race. Actually race doesn't matter at all in the tv-series as we can see. It's sort of like in real life except, of course, that RJ wrote it that way to give us that conclusion.

On 6/16/2019 at 8:23 PM, Lenlo said:

Good thing I didnt say to fit them all into one debate. I said to cut down the field

On 8/15/2019 at 8:22 PM, TheBowTiger said:

Seeing the casting I was little unsure, but then seeing some quotes from the book about how Two Rivers folks are described as being dark hair, dark eyed, and dark skinned I am fully in support of the casting decisions as long as the actors are top notch. Especially Mat, he looks perfect for the part.

The books do not say the Emmon's Fielders have dark skin. By Elaida's actions it's obvious they have darker skin tones then Rand's ginger look. However, just about everyone thought that they were as dark as a typical mediterranian person in our day. Think Spaniard, Italian, Greek, or light skin Arab but not obvioulsy black.

Actually, I would say more something like Northern France since tanning can make a Celtic inspired person look sort of like the others.

By now we're looking forward to Wednesday and hopefully some news of Lan, Thom, Loial, Elyas, the Trakands, and the rest of important cast from book 1.

Also in the books Tuon and her Truthspeaker ( who was actually Semirhage ) are the first " black " characters encountered in the series. Unless there was a Dacovale in Falme under Turok. It's even made mention the shock characters have at the skin tone. 

I hate "progressiveness" in these entrances. Your completely changing a story to fit some narrative you want to run, who actually cares about the story.

Sorry rant over. 

IMO the actress they've chosen for Nynaeve is just too plain from the pictures I've seen. 

from the wiki : She is also described as being relatively short and slim, standing at 5'4". She is said to be very pretty, even beautiful. 

Does the artwork on the books hold any sway?  Were they approved by Jordan?  If so there is no argument that Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve, are were cast without thought for the characters they will be portraying.  Hopefully they are so talented that I forget about it...

This indicates two things about the show I find very distressing.  One is how much respect Judkins has for the source material, at this point it seems very little.  And second is the tone the show will have.  If it is more important to Judkins to have a diverse cast instead of being faithful to the source material I am worried that the tone he is going for will be less serious and more young adult, like the atrocity that is The Magicians television adaptation.  It could simply be meeting a certain diversity quota.  I hope it is the latter.

I'm sorry, but I doubt the TV show will be believable with this unless they seriously change Jordan's original story.  This isn't diversity, this is forced diversity.

A town isolated for at least a thousand years?  Where they (further) share the same "old blood" of Manetheren?  And sure, Rand stood out, but he didn't realize it until Gawyn told him in Caemlyn?  I'm sure every actor is incredible, but if they stay faithful to the story: isolation would do it, especially with common blood, but they're either all white or all black.

Yes, by this decision immersion will either be more difficult or they have to show the rest of the world as incredibly diverse. If they e.g. keep the Aiel and the Sea Folk as in the books what are the purpose of the changes in the most isolated, remote village in the world other than forced diversity? And then we are into showrunner politics and not the WoT of the books, which leaves the important question. What else will be changed? So little that this won't matter too much in the big picture, or so much that we can barely recognize the book story? What is certain is that we already know, we won't get a faithful adaption.

I look forward to the next cast news. Thom and Lan especially, which will add a bit more knowledge to the questions above. I wonder why they haven't already announced it yet. Maybe Thom will be Thomina?

my only question is who is going to be cast as Lan ????????????????????????