Rosamund Pike recently opened up about portraying Moiraine in Amazon Prime Video's upcoming series based on The Wheel of Time novels by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.
"I needed to feel that you would believe Moiraine had this power if there were no visual effects -- the most important thing for me, was that I felt connected to something greater than myself," Pike said during a recent Twitter Q&A. "Robert Jordan is so eloquent about what it feels like to channel, the feeling of the one power filling your veins, the risk of it, the risk of drawing too much and the necessity of respecting it and being trained to use it."
Pike also addressed what it was like to work on a series with such extensive and complicated CGI effects, joking, "It was great, I did a full-body scan on day one and then I never had to show up!"
In regard to what it was like seeing Moiraine's full powers depicted onscreen, the actor added, "I felt like a badass. I said to [showrunner Rafe Judkins] when I first saw it, 'I need this video of me shooting fireballs to show to my sons again, and again.'"
Amazon Prime Video released the first teaser trailer for Season 1 of The Wheel of Time series on Sept. 2. In addition to setting the stage, the clip introduced a handful of key characters and locations from the novels. The platform also announced that the series will premiere on Friday, Nov. 19, with new episodes being released each Friday through Dec. 24.
While The Wheel of Time series has already been renewed by Amazon for a second season, which is filming now, Judkins confirmed he had eight seasons planned out before even writing the pilot. In fact, the showrunner said during an interview at Comic-Con@Home, "My danger will never be running out of books; the challenge we face is how do you tell this story the most cohesively, the most coherently, in what is a reasonable number of seasons."
The Wheel of Time fantasy book series consists of 14 novels and takes place on Earth in both the distant past and distant future, due to the established cyclical nature of the timeline. The character Moiraine Damodred was born with the channeler ability and is one of the strongest Aes Sedai, being the only one to not only face but survive an encounter with a Forsaken. A recently-released image from the series showed Pike-as-Moiraine, wearing a blue cloak and riding a dappled grey mare known as Aldieb in the books across what seems to be a beach.
Executive produced and written by Rafe Judkins, The Wheel of Time premieres this Nov. 19 on Amazon Prime Video.