'The Wheel of Time' Season 3 Trailer Shows Us the Future

The Wheel of Time may turn on the page of the original Robert Jordan novels, but it moves much swifter on screen. There are many book fans who have been turned off by showrunner Rafe Judkins' extreme streamlining of the 14 tome series, but considering when you add all of them together, the series runs somewhere in the ~11,000 page range, you can't really fault him. (Also, considering that some of the main characters wouldn't be introduced until Seasons 5 or 6 if the show had done a faithful retelling, that wasn't really an option.) 

Thus far, Judkins' far brisker telling of the fight between the light and the dark for worldwide domination has managed to squeeze out a full novel's worth of excessive detail. The result is that the forthcoming Season 3 will draw primarily from what was arguably* Jordan's last good novel from the series before it all started going off the rails, Book 4, The Shadow Rising.

(*I have been arguing this for years. Once you hit Book 5 and the novels start leaving out entire lead characters, it's no longer a functioning series. Fight me.)

With the third season arriving in mid-March 2025, Amazon has finally gotten around to releasing the full length trailer, which has glimpses of some of Jordan's most memorable scenes from the books, including the many visions of possible futures and pasts-that-never-were. And of course, we finally get to the Waste, which is the catalyst for a lot of growth for our ensemble of heroes.

The Wheel of Time Season 3 main roster includes U.K. actors Rosamund Pike (Saltburn) as Moiraine Damodred, Marcus Rutherford (Funny Woman) as Perrin Aybara, Dónal Finn (Rogue Heroes) as Mat Cauthon, Ceara Coveney (Hoard) as Elayne Trakand, Kate Fleetwood (Harlots) as Leandrin Guirale, Natasha O’Keefe (Peaky Blinders) as Lanfear, Ayoola Smart (Killing Eve) as Aviendha, and Kae Alexander (Game of Thrones) as Min Farshaw. The series also stars New Zealand actors Zoë Robins (The Brokenwood Mysteries) as Nynaeve al’Meara, Madeleine Madden (Jack Irish) as Egwene al’Vere, Dutch actor Josha Stradowski (Just Friends) as Rand al’Thor, and American actor Daniel Henney (Criminal Minds) as al’Lan Mandragoran.

Season 3 newcomers include Olivia Williams (Dune: Prophecy) as Queen Morgase, Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand & Fog) as Elaida Sedai, Luke Fetherston (Big Mood) as Gawyn Trakand, Callum Kerr (Four Weddings & a Funeral) as Galad Trakand, and Nuno Lopes (White Lines) as Lord Gaebril, the Queen's consort. Further additions include Isabella Bucceri (Everything in Between) as Faile Bashere, Björn Landberg (SOKO Wismar) as Rhuarc, Clan Chief of the Taardad Aiel, plus Nukâka Coster-Waldau (Anori), Salóme Gunnarsdóttir (The Lazarus Project), and Synnøve Macody Lund (Ragnarok) as the Aiel Wise Ones Bair, Melanie, and Melindhra.

The series was adapted for television by showrunner Judkins (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), who executive produces along with Pike, Mike Weber, Marigo Kehoe, Ciaran Donnelly, Justine Juel Gillmer, Dave Hill, Rick Selvage & Larry Mondragon for iwot productions, and Ted Field for Radar Pictures. The Wheel of Time is co-produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television.

The Wheel of Time Season 3 will premiere globally on Prime Video on Thursday, March 13, 2025, and stream with one episode a week through the end of April.