First Look! New ‘Wheel of Time’ Photo Hints at ‘Changed’ Rand, New Quests & ‘Complicated’ Battle Brewing

Damian Holbrook February 26, 2025, 11:00 am

Another #WOTWednesday, another epic piece of content from The Wheel of Time. This week, TV Insider is unveiling your exclusive first look at Prime Video‘s expansive key-art banner featuring most (not all!) of the key players for Season 3. And it’s a lineup worthy of the Age of Legends!

First up, we have Mat (Dónal Finn) and the White Tower crowd — trainees Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) and Elayne (Ceara Coveney), recruited seer Min Farshaw (Kae Alexander), and Aes Sedai “Mother,” Siuan (Sophie Okonedo). And if you’ve seen the intense opening minutes of the season opener that dropped last week, you know a major mess is about to go down inside the Aes Sedai’s stronghold. The no-spells-barred battle between the Amyrlin Seat and Kate Fleetwood‘s traitorous Black Ajah, Liandrin (on the far right of the image), sets the stage for a ton of story, previews showrunner Rafe Judkins.

Prime Video

“We have great stuff to use from Shadow Rising,” he says of the fourth book in author Robert Jordan’s WoT series (also Judkins’ favorite entry). “We also still have stuff that we’ve saved from previous books [and] this is the right moment to see some of these things.” Among them: the royal family of Aes Sedai trainee Elayne, played by Callum Kerr, Olivia Williams, and Luke Featherstone Nuno Lopes! “We have characters from Andor that you meet in Episode 302 that were introduced in the very first book, but we wanted to wait until you could really meet them, when we have the time in the show to do a proper introduction of these characters instead of just sort of shuffling some actors on screen and then shuffling them off.”

Prime Video

Next to them, we have Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), village boy Rand (Josha Stradowski), along with his love, Egwene (Madeleine Madden), Moiraine’s warder Lan (Daniel Henney), and Aviendah (Ayoola Smart), the Maiden of the Spear who will prove essential in leading this troupe to the desert land known as the Aiel Waste. That is, if Rand can take any guidance now that he’s been revealed to be the prophesized Dragon Reborn.

“It has changed him,” confirms Stradowski, adding that he has been waiting for the character to step into his power . “It’s time for Rand to stand up for who he is and he’s way more active and demanding. And what I was really pushing for with Rafe…we know the prophecies, but prophecies aside, why is Rand the Dragon reborn?”

The journey to that answer may also lead to some growth for his sworn protector, Moiraine. “She has to accept that is a battle of submission and control for her,” teases Pike. “In order to continue to guide him, she has to relinquish some of her control. Paradoxically, she has to be able to let him take the lead.”

Prime Video

Speaking of leading, Marcus Rutherford‘s gentle giant Perrin finally gets to drive a storyline of his own during a trip back to Two Rivers. “As soon as he gets there, he realizes that everything has changed… He had this idea of returning home and being outside of danger and destruction and war, [but] that’s just not a possibility anymore.” Thankfully, he has a solid squad backing him up, including Loial (Hammed Animashaun), Isabelle Bucceri’s “Hunter of the Horn,” Faile Bashere, and our new obsession, Maksim, the sexually fluid and shredded warder played by Taylor Napier who shares a a deep love and loyalty to our other obsession, Priyanka Bose’s badass Aes Sedai, Alanna.

“I can say that he has a big arc this season,” promises Judkins, referencing the fallout from Liandrin’s attack on the White Tower. “He and Alanna have a lot to deal with after what happened in Episode 1 of Season 3, and I think it’s really interesting how you get to see them deal with it.”

Prime Video

Finally, we get to the bad girls club. There’s Fleetwood’s previously established and perfectly wicked Liandrin; Shohreh Aghdashloo‘s newly arrived, headpiece-favoring troublemaker Elaida, a powerful Aes Sedai harboring some bad blood against lovers Moiraine and Siuan; Dark One groupie Moghedien (Laia Costa); and, of course, Rand’s dream-world seductress and all-around mind-effer, Lanfear.

In keeping with the show’s sly celebration of female power on both sides of Good and Evil, irksome dudes Padan Fain (Johann Myers) and boozy, over-zealous Whitecloak Dain Bornhald (Jay Duffy) are tucked in behind. Because let’s be for real, this season is all about Lanfear. And as played with utter malevolent glee by Natasha O’Keefe, fans can expect their opinions of this one to perhaps shift a bit by the end of the first few episodes after she and Moiraine are forced into a very unexpected alliance to keep Rand safe.

‘The Wheel of Time’ Trailer: Moiraine & Rand Face Deadly Ultimatum & More Season 3 Updates (VIDEO)

“It gets more complicated,” Judkins says excitedly. “The series will, I promise, delve into Lanfear and her complex nature.” Adds Pike, clearly loving the dynamic that develops between the two forces of nature, “I think she gives Moiraine a run for her money, doesn’t she? We are really eyeballing each other… It’s great for Moiraine to have an adversary in a strong woman and to have this triangle. There’s a sort of love triangle of Ewgene, Rand, and Lanfear, and then there’s this sort of power triangle of Moiraine and Lanfear both wanting to wield their influence over Rand.”

What a tangled wed this Wheel weaves!

The Wheel of Time, Season 3 Premiere (three episodes), Thursday, March 13, Prime Video