Amazon's Wheel of Time Casts Rosamund Pike, Confirms Brandon Sanderson's Involvement

Amazon's highly-anticipated TV series based on Robert Jordan's best-selling epic fantasy book series Wheel of Time has officially cast its lead.

Amazon has cast Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl and Die Another Day) for the show's lead role of Moraine Damodred, THR reports. Pike will also serve as producer for the series.

Pike's character, Moiraine Damodred, is one of the most respected magic users in Wheel of Time, and she is a member of a powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, and as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers, where she embarks on a dangerous mission to find the Dragon Reborn, a character who is fated to kill the evil entity known as the Dark One.

The Wheel of Time writers room Twitter account shared a behind-the-scenes photo of Pike:

Amazon also confirmed that best-selling author Brandon Sanderson, who wrote the final three novels of the Wheel of Time book series following Jordan's death in 2007, will serve as a consulting producer on the series alongside Harriet McDougal, the widow of Jordan.

Recently, Sanderson took it to Reddit to share some insight on the upcoming adaptation, and talked about the changes like the shift of having Moiraine serve as the central character (at least from the beginning).

"I found the [vast] majority of these decisions to be excellent choices–things that will give the show its own soul, but still in line with the feel and tone of the books," Sanderson wrote on r/WoT subreddit (via Tor.com). "I'd much rather get this, personally, than something like the first two Harry Potter films–which felt like someone trying to bring the books to the screen with exact scene-by-scene recreations. I'm certain there will be polarizing decisions made by the team, but the changes are coming from a good place, and I really like most of them."

Here's the official description of Amazon's Wheel of Time series:

"The Wheel of Time is one of the most popular and enduring fantasy series of all-time, with over 90 million books sold. Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine, a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity."

The Wheel of Time series consists of 15 volumes, two companion books, and a prequel novel.

Wheel of Time is slated to begin its production in Prague this September.

Related: Brandon Sanderson Compares Amazon's Wheel Of Time Series To Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Films