The Wheel of Time Season 2
Trevor Hogg rewinds the clock to learn about the spellbinding visual effects in The Wheel of Time Season 2
An argument can be made that there’s no more ardent a fanbase than those found in the fantasy genre, and this applies to the world envisioned by author Robert Jordan in The Wheel of Time. It’s a universe in which women form a connection with the One Power, which consists of earth, water, fire, air and spirit, and a messianic figure is reincarnated with the ability to be an instrument of either good or destruction. The ambitious concept has spawned 14 books and now a second season of their streamed adaptation on Prime Video.
“I wouldn’t say that the fan expectations caught me by surprise, but I was interested in how much they analyse things because they’re so invested in Robert Jordan’s story for The WheelofTime,” notes visual effects supervisor Andy Scrase. “Sometimes you see the words written in the book and try to put it onto the screen, but it doesn’t quite have the impact so you need to take a creative licence and see what you can do to make it more visually interesting. But for my part, I always start with the books. We’re lucky to have [consultant] Sarah Nakamura on the show who is a book goddess of The WheelofTime; she’s great for me to use as a reference.”
Forming the narrative arc of Season 2 are the second and third books, TheGreatHunt and TheDragonReborn, which demanded the production of close to 2,600 visual effects over the eight episodes under the stewardship of the creator and showrunner, Rafe Judkins. “The fundamental change from Season 1 to Season 2 is that we faced Covid-19 in Season 1 and finessed a lot of those workflows and ways in which we work,” says co-producer David Frew. “Framestore became our lead vendor in Season 2 and did the lion’s share of the work in Episode 208, which is our season finale. Their in-house visual effects supervisor Andy Scrase was attached to the show and we were able to use that skill base and team to lift the quality of the show and deliver Rafe’s vision.”
The number of vendors went from the 14 used during Season 1 to just four in Season 2, with MPC, Outpost VFX and beloFX working alongside Framestore. Frew adds: “We maximised the communication with the key vendors as it means we’re doing four instead of 14 briefs per sequence or episode, and then the multiple times that you have to do that. It also streamlined what we needed from Rafe.”
The ability to manipulate the five elements of the One Power is known as
