Amazon Cancels the 'Wheel of Time' Prime Video Series After 3 Seasons (deadline.com) 100
Long-time Slashdot reader SchroedingersCat shares this article from Deadline: Prime Video will not be renewing The Wheel of Time for a fourth season according to Deadline article. The decision, which comes more than a month after the Season 3 finale was released April 17, followed lengthy deliberations. As often is the case in the current economic environment, the reasons were financial as the series is liked creatively by the streamer's executives...
The Season 3 overall performance was not strong enough compared to the show's cost for Prime Video to commit to another season and the streamer could not make it work after examining different scenarios and following discussions with lead studio Sony TV, sources said. With the cancellation possibility — and the show's passionate fanbase — in mind, the Season 3 finale was designed to offer some closure. Still, the news would be a gut punch for fans who have been praising the latest season as the series' best yet creatively... Prime Video and Sony TV will continue to back the Emmy campaign for The Wheel of Time's third season.
The Season 3 overall performance was not strong enough compared to the show's cost for Prime Video to commit to another season and the streamer could not make it work after examining different scenarios and following discussions with lead studio Sony TV, sources said. With the cancellation possibility — and the show's passionate fanbase — in mind, the Season 3 finale was designed to offer some closure. Still, the news would be a gut punch for fans who have been praising the latest season as the series' best yet creatively... Prime Video and Sony TV will continue to back the Emmy campaign for The Wheel of Time's third season.
I guess i will watch it now. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: I guess i will watch it now. (Score:2, Insightful)
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This tells me you haven't read the books.
That is one of the main plots of the source material.
You wouldn't want them to mess with what the author wrote would you?
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This tells me you haven't read the books.
That is one of the main plots of the source material.
You wouldn't want them to mess with what the author wrote would you?
No. I have not read the books.
I couldn't care less about "the source material."
What I want when I watch a show or movie is to be entertained. The "source material" is irrelevant. All that matters is what I am watching, and whether I find it entertaining.
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And yet you registered on Slashdot. Curious.
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And yet you registered on Slashdot. Curious.
I find it entertaining.
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This tells me you haven't read the books.
That is one of the main plots of the source material.
You wouldn't want them to mess with what the author wrote would you?
They absolutely butchered the main plots of the source material. Granted, it's not particularly good source material. On the other hand, why use the books at all if all they use is a vague idea of the story and progression?
It's a shame. I loved these books when I was 13, I found them insightful, appealing, and well written. Because of the show affronting me I decided to read the books again recently. They were, alas, not as good 30 years later.
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Re: I guess i will watch it now. (Score:2)
Re: I guess i will watch it now. (Score:2)
Sounds like a Reacher, which led up to a big fight scene in its first season that didnâ(TM)t compare well to the unimpressive fights in Arrow (which Arrow had in every episode).
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Same here. Knowing that there's no cliffhanger end, I am more inclined to watch it.
I haven't read the books but a mate of mine has and is positive about them, so it's on my to read / to watch list for when I have the time.
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Skip the Netflix trash and read the books instead. The books are much better than the series they tried to make.
It's almost as bad as the Sword of Truth series someone tried. Good books - bad television.
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Skip the Netflix trash and read the books instead. The books are much better than the series they tried to make.
They've done alright so far with Three Body Problem compared to the books. I'd compare it to Orson Scott Card, "The Abyss" which I read before the movie and was impressed how well they matched the book, right down to the Garfield handing onto the inside of a dome glass portal in the station.
Investing in stories that are good and get cancelled really is the biggest thing that turns me off Netflix, or any streaming service.
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The Netflix three body problem is a crapfest. If you insist on watching a TV adaptation, try out the tencent one. It has added superfluous fillers, but is otherwise pretty true to the source.
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Skip the Netflix trash and read the books instead.
The books are terrible. I had a good go at the first, and made it less than half way through before giving up. The series is way, way better.
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Skip the Netflix trash and read the books instead.
The books are terrible. I had a good go at the first, and made it less than half way through before giving up. The series is way, way better.
I agree that the books are grievously lacking. I disagree with you on the series being better.
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a mate of mine has and is positive about them
The books aren't great. In fact, by the third book you will begin wishing painful ends on *all* the whiny, self-centered, self-destructive, childish protagonists and everyone enabling them.
I have never actually hated fictional characters or wished violence on them until I read WoT. They are that bad. Especially given how their neuroses just kept on making things fundamentally worse.
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And if an episode is poorly received, they can just remake it almost instantly.
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At least they won't be canceled mid-plotline.....
I'm looking at you WestWorld.
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Meh, if it's fun while it lasts that's fine (Score:2)
With wheel of Time if you like the show you've got I think literally decades of books you can read. I haven't read the series but I think it's got a definitive end. So you're better off than the
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As an anime nerd I'm used to shit getting canceled.
I liked things like The Matrix and Evangelion, mostly because it was good sci fi. I saw Death Note which was pretty cool however after a few others I kinda lost my way. Any suggestions?
Re: Meh, if it's fun while it lasts that's fine (Score:2)
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Thanks
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For science fiction I would suggest Planetes, Ghost In The Shell: Stand alone complex, Psycho-Pass.
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As an anime nerd I'm used to shit getting canceled. One of my favorite animes of all time, witchcraft works, only got 12 eps. On the other hand it got a lot more manga which I tracked down and read. Kind of pricey but I couldn't help myself and there weren't any cheap services I could sign up for to read it at.
With wheel of Time if you like the show you've got I think literally decades of books you can read. I haven't read the series but I think it's got a definitive end. So you're better off than the game of thrones fans.
The series consists of 15 books, the last three being written by Brandon Sanderson (who is probably an AI) as Robert Jordan died in 2007 (probably due to something woman related if his books are any indication).
Re: I guess i will watch it now. (Score:1)
The wheel of time is such a huge story line I have no idea what they were thinking
other than not one single person involved in any decision making actually read any of the books. 3 seasons can't even cover a single book properly and there are 15 books currently. There was absolutely no way this was going to play out for the investors. I knew that from the second it was announced regardless of my excitement of the show. If a single book is 30 plus hours to read it'll never be a successful series. They are
Re: I guess i will watch it now. (Score:5, Informative)
If a single book is 30 plus hours to read it'll never be a successful series.
To be fair, at least around 1/5 or even 1/3 of each book is
- Recaps of stuff that happened as the storytelling pans towards PoV character.
- Descriptions of scenery.
- Slow as hell travel scenes
On TV, you can skip the recaps, scenery is implicit, and the travel montages can be made much faster.
I mean, story summaries are pretty much:
- Book 1, works as an independent story, the three country boys and two gals are yanked onto the adventure, during which they learn a bunch of lore and at the end they have a bossfight
- Book 2&3, the boss was just a sub-boss of the real Big Bad, need to grab a bunch of gear. Gals go to level up in wizard school, boys start hunting for that extra gear. Add a couple of prophecies into the mix.
- Book 4-7: The main character does a bunch of level ups with Fremen (oh wait, Aiel) and defeats a few more bosses. A new group (Seachan) show up in force, while they have so far been only hinted at.
- Book 8-11: Folks bounce around and nothing much happens, but getting a bunch of setup for the final battle.
- Books 12-14: Payoff to the previous four books set-up. Plotlines finally getting tied up with massive battles everywhere.
(Yeah, personally at around book 9 I stopped for several years, but then when news got around that the series had finally finished, I got around to reading them. It was ok-ish in the end, but I'll probably not even try reading them again).
Anyway, there's so much filler in the books that condensing those to around Book 1 = Season 1 and then 1 season for every 2-3 books is not *that* difficult if you just cull a bit of the plot kudzu.
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If a single book is 30 plus hours to read it'll never be a successful series.
To be fair, at least around 1/5 or even 1/3 of each book is
- Recaps of stuff that happened as the storytelling pans towards PoV character.
- Descriptions of scenery.
- Slow as hell travel scenes
On TV, you can skip the recaps, scenery is implicit, and the travel montages can be made much faster.
I mean, story summaries are pretty much:
- Book 1, works as an independent story, the three country boys and two gals are yanked onto the adventure, during which they learn a bunch of lore and at the end they have a bossfight
- Book 2&3, the boss was just a sub-boss of the real Big Bad, need to grab a bunch of gear. Gals go to level up in wizard school, boys start hunting for that extra gear. Add a couple of prophecies into the mix.
- Book 4-7: The main character does a bunch of level ups with Fremen (oh wait, Aiel) and defeats a few more bosses. A new group (Seachan) show up in force, while they have so far been only hinted at.
- Book 8-11: Folks bounce around and nothing much happens, but getting a bunch of setup for the final battle.
- Books 12-14: Payoff to the previous four books set-up. Plotlines finally getting tied up with massive battles everywhere.
(Yeah, personally at around book 9 I stopped for several years, but then when news got around that the series had finally finished, I got around to reading them. It was ok-ish in the end, but I'll probably not even try reading them again).
Anyway, there's so much filler in the books that condensing those to around Book 1 = Season 1 and then 1 season for every 2-3 books is not *that* difficult if you just cull a bit of the plot kudzu.
Cut out the pointless arguing between Nynaeve, Elayne, Birgitte, and Egwene (and all the asinine Dae's dae'mar stuff) and you will be down to about 8 books. That could be really handy in order to flesh out the storylines in the last three since Perrin and Mat never get the chapters they need to fit into the wheel properly, and so many threads like Lanfear, Moiraine, Isam, Black Tower, Foxes and Snakes, Shara, Seanchan / Tuon, and more, never get any reasonable conclusion, they are just snipped and packed aw
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I don't watch any prime or any netflix shows until they go seasons end. Whats the point to get invested in something that will probably get canceled without any kind of closure?
So many people must feel the same, I thought exactly the same thing.
I know they other services are little different but prime and netflix is as soulless as they come.
In 2016 I had to recover from spinal surgery for 10 months and (Doctors orders) do nothing so I watched Netflix and it did feel a bit soul sucking after a while. I could not watch any streaming service for a long time after that and found other things to do.
Watching it now, I kinda wonder what the rug pull is gonna look like and when it is coming.
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It depends on the show. Star Trek Prodigy is basically cancelled now, but each season is a complete story so it's not as bad as it could have been. And what we did get was amazing. Legitimately some of the best Trek ever made. It did more for some of the Voyager characters than 7 seasons of that show managed to, as well as having its own very compelling original cast.
Things that are adapted from a series of books are much more risky. Anything that I'm not really excited about usually has to wait to see if t
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Don't you mean series end with a finale closure? I don't like having series ending with cliffhangers that doesn't complete the story/plot. Look at The Orville. It has an ending because they didn't know if it was going to be renewed. So, far no renewals and probably never will be renewed.
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This one's main purpose was to race-swap the characters (with the exception of the protagonist, who is adopted, many of the major characters are from the same small town of what amounts to white people, and they all became a weird racial mix you wouldn't find many places historically except for the biggest cities) and do extra-turbo-pseudofeminism in a series that had tons of amazing female characters. This was all very deliberate and probably part of why the thing got funded to begin with.
This made it pois
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"The Current Economic Environment" (Score:2)
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It's a business, the reasons for renewing or cancelling a show are always financial no matter the environment.
I took the comment to mean as compared to say... 5 or 6 years ago, when these streamers were all willing to take a loss to establish a base of subscribers. Now they've got the market penetration they're going to get, and it's time to start looking at costs versus profits.
Uh no. (Score:5, Insightful)
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The show is garbage compared to the books and it's been poisoned with "Current Year Ideologies." It was more insufferable-modern-entertainment for the most illusive "modern audience."
Because you can't say what you really meant to say... its not racist, sexist or bigoted and he's really upset about it.
If anything, you're encouraging more people to watch it.
I suspect if anything, a fantasy setting is probably holding it back as fantasy hasn't been popular for some time, especially now as GOT is well and truly over.
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It's a business, the reasons for renewing or cancelling a show are always financial no matter the environment.
Yes, and many people don't get it when their favorite show is cancelled (as it is all about them; the problem is that the viewing audience is also counted as just them). While many can discuss whether the economics of scripted episodic content is sustainable in the long term (it probably is not, with the occasional breakout exception), the reality is most execs realize people will watch (cheap) crap and one can still get your C-level bonus.
Of course (Score:2)
Stories have power.
But then, so do Studio bottom lines. Great show. Happy for the three seasons.
FFS (Score:4, Insightful)
The Wheel of Time was the good fantasy series on Prime. I guess it made The Rings of Power look even worse in comparison.
Re:FFS (Score:5, Funny)
Re:FFS (Score:4, Insightful)
As someone with terminal bowel cancer, I can assure you, I'd rather watch Rings of Power than go through this shit. It's not even close either.
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Re: FFS (Score:2)
Very disappointed, (Score:2)
As poor an adaptation of Jordan (and Sanderson)'s books this was, I still found it very entertaining. Was looking forward to the next season for it.
Re:Very disappointed, (Score:5, Funny)
As poor an adaptation of Jordan (and Sanderson)'s books this was, I still found it very entertaining. Was looking forward to the next season for it.
What do you mean a poor adaptation? The books didn’t actually end because the author died 11 books and thousands of pages in, leaving audiences hanging. Now the series dies after three seasons leaving us all hanging again, I mean it did capture the essential element at least.
Re:Very disappointed, (Score:5, Informative)
The books were finished by Brandon Sanderson on volume 14, and if I do say so his contribution was actually a big positive. The pace was lethargic and full of detours into Aes Sedai politics in the last few volumes by Jordan. Sanderson brought the main story back into focus and got the ball rolling on the Last Battle.
The TV series meddled too much with the main characters to fit the spirit of the books beginnings, and the casting choices we detrimental to the setting of the story.
I don't think you can avoid that kind of meddling (Score:3)
There's a lot of things you can do in print that's basically impossible in movies and tv.
The ents are probably the best example. You have literally pages and pages of them calmly meandering and doing fuck all and it's all gets to a point where it's really silly.
Then they make their decisio
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TV and books are very different and you're going to have to adapt stuff to make it it work as TV. Because of that if you're a big fan of the books of anything you're never going to be happy with a TV adoption.
Nah, disagree. There are adaptations from books to tv that are really good. It seems to be those that stick close to the source and remove bits where it makes sense, rather than trying to add whole new plot lines "just because". For me, The expanse is a good example. And the first few seasons of Game of Thrones. Bad adaptations like The Wheel of Time are common. It seems like writers feel they have to add their own twist to the material, instead of adapting a story that is known to be popular. WoT TV mad
Re: Very disappointed, (Score:2)
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This. I really enjoyed the first books, but then you got hundreds of pages of...absolutely nothing happening. I gave up out of sheer boredom.
You don't like twenty pages of Aes Sedai adjusting their skirts and thinking about if anyone noticed them adjusting said skirts?
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I hated it.
I loved Jordan's rambling and would happily have read another 10 book tbh.
what? (Score:1)
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Sanderson came in and cleared out the rat's nest of plot lines Jordan had bogged himself down with and ended the series on a much better note. The final ending was a little surprising, but from what I understand, Jordan had already written the ending when he started the series, so it's what he intended.
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His ending was tacked on garbage. I read it but I only consider the Jordan books canon (for me)
And yes, don't bother telling me he used Jordan's notes - I know.
OTOH (Score:3)
Re: Very disappointed, (Score:4, Interesting)
Jordan's original idea was a trilogy.
in the third book Rand is supposed to get balefire and then that's it. He wins.
he was successful with the books so he drew the whole thing out the same way that GRRM is doing.
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Women are absolutely capable of producing good scripts, these women did not do so. They seemed far more interested in finding characters to turn into lesbians than they were in writin
Just read the book. (Score:2)
But make sure sure you have enough time - it's 14 heavyweight books.
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Or don't. The books are bad. Or at least the first third of the first book it bad enough to make it not worth wading through any further. The series is much better.
If only the books were canceled... (Score:1)
After only three of them. Robert Jordan sucks, and the show sucks too. Hence the poor ratings despite all the stupid money poured in.
Re:If only the books were canceled... (Score:5, Funny)
You didn't enjoy hearing a dozen times per book about how that one female character pulled her braid when she got angry!?
"Uh oh, she's angry again for the hundredth time. Will she... oh... oh my God she's doing it! She's pulling her braid again! This is great literature!"
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I honestly didn't make it that far, to a single braid pull. I got a few pages in and said, "WTF? People read this shit?" Then I put it down and never tried again.
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Quite some time ago I made it several books in. Obviously I didn't find it to be as bad as you did given that fact but I won't defend it either.
I'm not even too much of a fantasy fan (I enjoy it a bit but I'm more into sci fi as far as fiction goes) but I feel like there is much better fantasy literature out there even after one counts Tolkien.
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Jordan was terrible at writing female characters.
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I agree with your sentence but there appear to be a couple of superfluous words tacked on the end.
Yes I'm being bitchy! Some people clearly enjoyed his writing, so terrible is relative but I did not. It's basically a LoTR ripoff as was the fashion of the day but with sludgy pacing, laboured descriptions, perversely chosen names, and heavy handed dialogue.
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I got about four chapters into the first book and gave up. Even the pulp put out by Weisman and Hickman was more interesting. There were a lot of Tolkien knockoffs back in the day, some better, some worse, and Robert Jordan was on the worse side. I struggled through the first season of the show, but it was pretty dire as well.
Now canceling The Expanse, that was sad.
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As I just posted above, I only got a few pages into WOT until I gave up. I definitely wanted to love it, but there was nothing to love.
Weiss and Hickman totally ripped off Tolkein, but they also wrote more entertainingly that he did, at least for their first trilogy. It went downhill after that.
There has, of course, been a lot of great high fantasy ever since. Earthsea is especially great. Like all firsts, Tolkein started things, but the young ones soon outdid him.
I do not feel that Harry Potter is espe
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I do not feel that Harry Potter is especially great, though. It just felt childish to me, which probably explains why it's so popular.
I mean it was or at least started out literally as a kid's book. I was never a fan.
Earthsea is great, no comments.
And nothing of value was lost (Score:3)
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Tell me you haven't read the source material without telling me you haven't read the source material LMAO.
The series wasn't enough like the book to be honest - should have gone harder.
Weird (Score:2)
Never heard of it, IMDB has a couple of 9/10 for season 3. I'd bet they're just creating hype and demand rather than being honest.
Put out of its misery at last (Score:3)
It was an awful adaptation (Score:3)
The books are good, go read them, but the fucking series was just bad.
Gratuitous sex scenes between characters that NEVER were romantically involved in the books, there weren't even hints.
I miss the Golden Age of Television (Score:2)
Remember when there were so awesome TV shows it was hard to pick which one to watch? The shows that are legendary top ten shows to this very day?
We sure are very far away from it now, and the amount of garbage these megacorps are shtting out is just sad.
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Now you just log on anytime, that always available part may be why so many shows seem to suck now. You used to have to wait for the next episode at a specific time so it was already more engaging since you had to plan for it.
Oh no. Not the show worse than Rings of Power. (Score:3, Insightful)
Honestly, I'm shocked it got a second season. It was objectively worse than Rings of Power. Disagree? Here's why:
Both have almost nothing to do with the source material.
The characters, their back stories, their behavior, and their values are wildly different than the books, essentially new characters wearing their names. Similar issues with the lore early on that are pretty core to the story - no idea how they intended to fix that if it had survived to later books, but I'm guessing since all the characters were essentially new, the ending would have been as well. Just one character and relationship example: Mat in the books is a fun loving, humorous rogue archetype, with a tendency to get himself into trouble, but a nack for getting back out of it. He has a loving family, and his father (Abell Cauthon) is known to be a shrewd horse trader, from whom Mat learned a lot about horses, how to watch out for scams, and to deal fairly but firmly. Abell along with Rand's father leave the Two Rivers shortly after the kids hoping to catch up and help look after them as they adapt to the wider world, though they never do catch the group. In the show? Abell is an abusive drunk. End of story.
It's not even internally consistent, killing a character at the end of the first season, realizing he was too important to the story to have dead and just having him walk onscreen in season 2 without comment. The whole world is wildly different too, with White Cloaks operating with impunity within the borders of Andor - something Morgase wouldn't have ever allowed in the books one example from the first episode). If they wanted to do an original fantasy show, they should have done that. Getting a license only to ignore everything that people value in the original work isn't going to do better than a new property after the first couple episodes, because the built in fanbase will be angry instead of excited.
Bottom line: it was bad, and Rafe should feel bad.
Makes sense (Score:2)
A struggle to watch, I bailed midway through the S3 finale. Pretty much sums up the series. It could have been good, even great, in the right hands.