Judkins chalks up some of the needed changes to the way the characters in the Wheel of Time series sometimes went off on their own storylines in the books. “The author, Robert Jordan, was really careful about giving each of them a very full interior life and agendas,” Judkins explained. “They’re always working towards something even if it’s not necessarily working towards the story he’s trying to tell. All of those characters want something and they push for it, and I think that makes for the best television.”
Read more
One strategy Judkins had for striking a balance between rigid adaptation and literary license was to hire writers with a variety of prior experience with the books. “We had people who had basically this seminal moment of their lives reading the Wheel of Time in the writers room and then people who’d never read the books,” he admitted. “I think that balance really lets you remind yourself of the things that are important in there, the things that ring true, and not get too tied into the stuff that actually makes the adaptation worse than it would be… breaking things just to deliver them exactly as they are to TV.”
Fortunately, Judkins has a complete series of books to work with, unlike what happened with the final season of Game of Thrones where the show went beyond its source material. “I think you really need to know the end of your story when you start telling it,” he said in the panel. “I sat down and broke out what I thought eight seasons of the show might look like before I started writing the pilot because I felt like you have to build in this knowledge of where you’re going and how you’re getting there from the very beginning in order to tell the stories the best you can.”
