Wheel of Time

Wait...these books ended?

Some pretty bad casting, and too clearly influenced by the feels of wanting to be diverse, rather than following the source material. I don't recall anyone in Two Rivers ever being described as dark skinned, but rather having dark hair / eyes (typically). The actress being used for Egwene would make a great Tuon though, and the actress for Nynaeve is just clearly wrong, same with Perrin.

You would think they would learn to keep close to the source material. I look forward to the articles inevitably claiming people are just racist because they are complaining.

Y’all Wakandans iz racist, goldeneyes was black as the night and the two rivers was in da heart of wakanda

I had high hopes for this to be good. But that cast, what the fuck are they thinking.

Arative said:

You would think they would learn to keep close to the source material. I look forward to the articles inevitably claiming people are just racist because they are complaining.

Click to expand...

Already seen that, kinda. I read an article about the casting on the ever so open minded / inclusive Ars Technica, then made a comment about the casting choices (simply disagreeing with the racial makeup given the actual lore of the story). Haven't been called a racist yet, but instantly got downvotes, lol.

Normally I don't give two shits if you gender or race swap characters for a new medium, but this makes no god damn sense.

Arative said:

Its been a while since I read the series but aren't the people in emond's village all super white?

Click to expand...

I don't think it's ever stated. We do know that Rand and the Andoran royals are white as fuck though, and that's distinctive enough to make the Cairheinin spymaster remark on the resemblance.

The cover artist certainly assumed they were all white though, but he also assumed the Aiel were all middle-easterners and drew the main characters differently every time, so make of that what you will ;p

Kharzette said:

THE WHEEL OF TIME TV Series Casts Important Characters - Nerdist

Amazon announces five cast regulars for their upcoming TV series The Wheel of Time, based on the best-selling fantasy books from author Robert Jordan.

nerdist.com

That cast...

Aren't they going to lose out on the whole fancy-lady-training-with-aboriginals fish out of water story thing when the fancy lady is an aboriginal?

Click to expand...

LMFAO Egwene and Nynaeve (sp) are fugly black chicks. Of course they are. Of course they are.

And theyve shoehorned in yet another black female - white male relationship. And theyve cast yet another redhead (which are more f a minority than blacks with a history of oppression) with a black chick.

Wonder if the show runners are gonna pay attention to the source material in this one?

velk said:

I don't think it's ever stated. We do know that Rand and the Andoran royals are white as fuck though, and that's distinctive enough to make the Cairheinin spymaster remark on the resemblance.

The cover artist certainly assumed they were all white though, but he also assumed the Aiel were all middle-easterners and drew the main characters differently every time, so make of that what you will ;p

Click to expand...

The Two Rivers people had darker skin than Rand, but still light enough to allow them to be "sun darkened" due to being farmers. The ethnicity of Two Rivers wasn't different enough from Rand as to make Rand stand out as being different aside from hair / eye color, yet the casting has Rand being very different than the rest (other than Mat). The people of Randland / Aiel Waste didn't have distinct ethnic differences (as we see in the cast), rather the distinctions came from culture. The ethnic distinctions were more pronounced with Seanchan / Sea Folk / Sharans, afaik. It will be interesting if the guy playing Perrin will be able to have shoulder length, curly hair rather than an afro. =)

Edit: As far I've read, RJ never had any contact with Darrel K. Sweet about the cover art. There were two "guides" released for the WoT series, both of which had character art and both of which had heavy input from Harriet. Neither book has Edmond's Field characters presented like this cast, but of course people say those guides are not canon.

Lanx said:

i've never read this series,

has anyone ever read the comics?

Read Comics, Graphic Novels, Manga and More

www.comixology.com

can i get away with that?

Click to expand...

No, but but its not canon anyway!

Arative said:

You would think they would learn to keep close to the source material. I look forward to the articles inevitably claiming people are just racist because they are complaining.

Click to expand...

the source material is hot garbage past books 3 or 4. If they can get a decent fantasy show in a tight 4 or 5 seasons out of the wheel of time material, i think it could be good. Its highly unlikely, given the track record of TV/Hollywood and the desire of younger showrunners/writers to try and make everything "relatable" to modern politics and causes.

The people in the books were all really young in book 1 so its not weird that they are all really young here either, and I honestly could care less about the ethnic makeup of the cast. Heck, the series even had trannies (via magic) and some gay stuff going on so can't even bitch about that.

I'm just pretty sure it'll be hot garbage because you won't buy at all that this is a different world and time with a different set of rules, it'll feel like Earth 2019 with a little magic thrown in.

I met Robert Jordan at a book signing back in like 1992 before anyone gave a shit about WOT, even have an autographed copy of the first book. He was a great fat bastard who had drinks with like the 7 of us who showed up lol. i wasn't 21 yet so couldn't even drink

Rikkon said:

Y’all Wakandans iz racist, goldeneyes was black as the night and the two rivers was in da heart of wakanda

Click to expand...

Don't bring that BS to this thread man.

Zindan said:

Some pretty bad casting, and too clearly influenced by the feels of wanting to be diverse, rather than following the source material. I don't recall anyone in Two Rivers ever being described as dark skinned, but rather having dark hair / eyes (typically). The actress being used for Egwene would make a great Tuon though, and the actress for Nynaeve is just clearly wrong, same with Perrin.

Click to expand...

It is bad casting for the reasons you have given. Perfect Tuon IMO:

This is all especially confusing since the Seanchan are specifically described as a race of dark-skinned warriors and it is a group of badasses who dominate continents and harness source users (literally) for their own needs. It seems entirely unnecessary to diversity up the cast when the story will naturally lead you to strong, diverse characters anyways.

Fucking christ.

Once they get out in the world a bit there are so many regions that are sort of similar to our own mideast or india or africa. The tower would be a mix of them all, but maybe it is like someone said, they are afraid the show wouldn't last and they don't want to have an all whitey cast.

It's not like they are side characters either, some of the really important movers & shakers in the later books are from far flung places. At least that's how I remember it.