Wheel of Time
I’ve seen some amount of panic among fans of The Wheel of Time that it’s been a while since the show ended and there has not been a renewal announcement for season 4 after the truly excellent season 3.
Fans are sharing a petition with almost two hundred thousand “letters sent,” and they’ve seen it shared by the show’s creator and members of the cast, which they believe implies that maybe there’s some desperation setting in that this might not happen.
While I don’t find myself often being an optimist, I think fans may be overly stressed here a bit, and there are a number of reasons that it seems unlikely Amazon will cancel Wheel of Time ahead of season 4, or really before it’s able to concoct some sort of conclusion overall (let’s be real, no matter what this isn’t going to run for as many seasons as the nearly endless amount of books).
Wheel of Time
The fact that it’s been three weeks or so since The Wheel of Time season 3’s finale aired and there’s been no word about renewal…doesn’t mean anything. A month plus is easily more than standard in the streaming industry, and barely any shows get renewals immediately or while a season is still airing.
All we have to do is look to Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Amazon’s other big (much bigger, in terms of scope and budget) fantasy series which once upon a time seemed guaranteed to run for five seasons at least. But after viewership for season 2 was reportedly cut in half from season 1, it took three and a half months after the finale to get official word that the series was coming back for season 3.
More than most, I believe Amazon also respects quality to the point where they want most of their series outside of perhaps horrific underperformers (which Wheel of Time is not) to be able to exist as coherent wholes rather than impose a mid-story cancellation. Wheel of Time has always reviewed pretty well, but season 3 rocketed up to a stunning 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration that it’s currently the best fantasy series on TV. That’s something Amazon is not going to take lightly.
Wheel of Time
Finally, I don’t think the cast is desperate, I think they’re just sharing the petition as a form of appreciation for its fanbase, not that they badly need the signatures to get Amazon to pay attention. We’ve already heard optimistic comments from the cast about season 4 to this point. Here’s Josha Stradowski (Rand al’Thor) last month:
“Yeah, we’re confident that a fourth season will be greenlit.”
And then showrunner Rafe Judkins about why they went with Amazon in the first place:
“That is the same thing that I’ve been sort of asking Amazon,” Judkins said. “What is the end game for the show? I really want to deliver this full series, so how do we best do that?”
“I think one reason we went with Amazon, because we had options of who was going to buy the series when we first went out with it, is that Amazon felt like a place where they do want to invest in shows for the long term. There’s not a lot of places doing that anymore.”
It’s been three weeks, that’s too soon to worry about anything. And really, we see shows renewed after months, so we’re far away from some sort of panic point. All current signs point to Amazon renewing Wheel of Time for season 4 eventually, and I don’t think fans should be stressing too much.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
