There will be 8 episodes in the first season and it will include events from book 2 (though how much is still up for speculation). It seems like Alanna and Logain were on the set at the same time, so it's possible we may see her involved with his capture

7 hours ago, agreddon said:

Do we have confirmation that he's even on the cast other than a stray tweet that puts him in Prague?

Not yet - maybe we'll hear more on 12/4 (the next WoTWednesday)

45 minutes ago, mistborn82 said:

If it's the first ep, he's probably not Bornhold and Ishamael seems to be in legal limbo so my guess is Thom. I just hope he has the voice.

Me too! I'll have to listen to some sound bytes to see if the shoe fits. He looks like a passable Thom ?

So now we know McElhatton is playing Tam (yay, that makes me much more interested in that character's development), who do you think Stuart Graham is playing? Thom? Bornhald? Ishmael? 

I suppose the best standard to hold this against would be Game of Thrones... they had a wide cast of characters with an equally wide range of morals (which we'll encounter in this show as well: ie.: Verin, Ingtar, etc.), but only so many true adversaries. There were the Freys, the White Walkers, the Boltons, The Mountain, Euron Greyjoy... I'm probably missing a few - but it's far from 13, and the show was extremely rushed in the last two seasons. 1) I hope that this adaptation has room to breathe and that it won't be rushed towards the end and 2) there's just so much screen time. If they'll have 12 episodes a season, that would be awesome! The first may only have 6, though. Extremely excited to see this play out ? And if the first season goes well, I may have to plan a trip to Prague or wherever it is they are filming at the time, just to go there. (I got to see where they filmed north of the wall in GoT in Iceland... it was AMAZING) I just wish we had more casting updates (as I'm sure we all agree lol)

24 minutes ago, johnnysd2 said:

 

I am not sure they cut any Forsaken to be honest. They really are not all around at the same time necessarily and almost all of them play important roles.  I like your list but they are almost all characters that will be fun on screen. I read that the budget for each episode is actually larger than GoT so I suspect they may not cut as much as we think as much as just streamline the story progression.  I mean there were like 20 main characters in GOT at least as well, and additional characters sort of adds depth to the show even if they are not seen that much. Big question for me sort of remains how "adult" will it be. 

Can't say I'd be unhappy if they kept all of 'em ? And I'm hoping it will be an adult-themed show, similar to GoT. I think that edginess is part of what made that show successful. That, and I'd hate for this to devolve into a cheesefest - but I think they'll do their best to avoid that, considering some of the acting caliber they have. Granted - plenty of the talent is relatively new and unknown (and I'll admit, Nynaeve having been a Power Ranger made me REAL nervous), but with Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, and what appears to be Michael McElhatton, They've got some core chops to work with. I think the new talent will rise to the occasion, and hopefully the writing will be top notch. LOT of pressure on the writers. I'm glad Brandon Sanderson has said he likes the first two episodes

1 hour ago, mistborn82 said:

Aginor and Balth I think you keep to kill permanently in the season 1 finale and Be'lal gets absorbed by Ishamael

Could be fun - I'm all about destruction ? Though it could seem like a red herring to the audience to meet and then simultaneously lose these two (assuming they minimize the body snatching -- if that's the case, I think they'd hack both to minimize confusion). Could be enough drama with Fain, Ba'alzamon and their hordes of darkfriends/trollocs/myrddraal. I suppose it also matters if they'll be bringing Ravhin and/or Lanfear into season 1.

Speaking of words like Myrddraal: I'm wondering if they'll shorten that to "fade" (much like how Game of Thrones chose a more marketable name of "white walkers" instead of "the others")... phonetics may play out in an interesting way with all of the unique names, titles, places and things we're all so used to reading (and not necessarily saying out loud!)

Forsaken! Who will make the cut, who will not? And will 13 remain a magic number?

We all know that when adapting book-to-screen, it's important to truncate and simplify in order to not lose the audience. With that having been said: in the books, there are 13 members of the Forsaken. There are 13 Aes Sedai (or channelers, really) that are required to turn another channeler to the Dark One against their will, accompanied by 13 Myrddraal. I'm thinking they may drop that number to something lower - like... 6 or 7 - primarily to decrease the number of Forsaken we're asking our audience to both remember and care about.

So how many Forsaken do you think will make the cut, and who? Do you think it will affect the importance of the number 13 at all?

I think the following, at least, should be included... wouldn't be surprised if we see some of the forsaken "absorb" the plot points of others that we'll lose:

- Lanfear (how can we not?)

- Ishamael/Moridin (I suspect we may only have one body-snatcher - otherwise, there could be mass confusion in having the audience remember who's who and why their character is even important)

- Moghedian (we need a whiny little whipping post to make us feel good about ourselves. Plus: private study sessions in Saidar!)

- Asmodean (male version whipping post - plus: private study sessions in Saidin!)

- Graendal (if for no other reason than to fan service with her extravagant parties, complete with creatively clad or non-clad contortionists)

- Demandred (because: fun with subterfuge. Mazrim Taim it up, baby! Expect a name change with either Demandred or Moiraine's last name of Damodred... and they already announced Moiraine's character name -- so that would leave us with a differently named Forsaken.)

- Ravhin (... more fun with subterfuge! Hoodwink Morgase and wreak havoc in Caemlyn!)

Forsaken I have a hard time remembering and therefor could be cut: 

- Aginor

- Balthamel

- Sammael *(Perhaps to absorb Demandred's character - did anybody really care about Sam's blustering, anyway? Nice name you got there... it'd be a shame if I had to... give it to Demandred instead *cackle*)

- Be'lal (New phone... who 'dis? No, seriously, who the hell is Be'lal? He is "grey-man-ish" in his lack of memorability)

- Semirhage (Share her role & character aspects with Lanny, Moggy and/or Granny)

- Mesaana (Ditto?)

On 10/8/2019 at 11:27 AM, mistborn82 said:

Could he be Ishamael? So far we only know good characters, eventually we're going to have to get the Forsaken and he's the only one in EotW

Technically there were three forsaken in book one: Aginor and Belthamel both died at the end of EotW. I wouldn't be surprised if a number of the Forsaken get chopped from the series since there are so many of them... but a good point was brought up regarding the actor being swapped out at some point for Moridin. I had been leaning towards McElhatton playing Ishamael, however, with that in mind I'm leaning more towards Fain. Fain had a good deal to contribute to EotW - starting out as a minor peddler to suddenly skulking around Baerlon and then Shadar Logoth and Whitebridge. He is the one that drives the Myrddraal into the Ways, which speaks volumes: what human can do that? Machin Shin was afraid of him. Finally, once captured at Fal Dara, there is the big reveal regarding how deeply he had been turned to the Shadow, and for how long. So - it could be a meaty part for season 1! I guess I could see Thom, but I would have to see some twinkles of merriment in those former-Bolton eyes to believe that would be the best role for him. #TeamFain!