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Television Books

Amazon Cancels the 'Wheel of Time' Prime Video Series After 3 Seasons (deadline.com) 37

Posted by EditorDavid from the knife-of-dreams dept.
Long-time Slashdot reader SchroedingersCat shares this article from Deadline: Prime Video will not be renewing The Wheel of Time for a fourth season according to Deadline article. The decision, which comes more than a month after the Season 3 finale was released April 17, followed lengthy deliberations. As often is the case in the current economic environment, the reasons were financial as the series is liked creatively by the streamer's executives...

The Season 3 overall performance was not strong enough compared to the show's cost for Prime Video to commit to another season and the streamer could not make it work after examining different scenarios and following discussions with lead studio Sony TV, sources said. With the cancellation possibility — and the show's passionate fanbase — in mind, the Season 3 finale was designed to offer some closure. Still, the news would be a gut punch for fans who have been praising the latest season as the series' best yet creatively... Prime Video and Sony TV will continue to back the Emmy campaign for The Wheel of Time's third season.

Amazon Cancels the 'Wheel of Time' Prime Video Series After 3 Seasons More | Reply

Amazon Cancels the 'Wheel of Time' Prime Video Series After 3 Seasons

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  • I guess i will watch it now. (Score:3)

    by Revek ( 133289 ) on Saturday May 24, 2025 @05:44PM (#65401981)
    I don't watch any prime or any netflix shows until they go seasons end. Whats the point to get invested in something that will probably get canceled without any kind of closure? I know they other services are little different but prime and netflix is as soulless as they come.
    • Don't worry this one was not worth watching anyways. They turned it into a show all about leading up to the fight scenes, but with the worst fight scenes ever.

      • I watched about 20 minutes of the first episode when it first aired. I concluded the world was all powerful women where men just suck and turned it off.

        Glad I did.

    • Same here. Knowing that there's no cliffhanger end, I am more inclined to watch it.

      I haven't read the books but a mate of mine has and is positive about them, so it's on my to read / to watch list for when I have the time.

    • If you thought streaming-only series were often soulless, just wait 5 years. These sorts of mass produced shows will be mostly made by AI. The plot, voices, actors, all of it. Shortly after this time, media companies will be wondering why there is a sudden decline in viewership. And they'll dump more into advertising and promotion to get their numbers up.

    • I hate to do this to you but while it's not technically a cliffhanger... it will be kind of abrupt. I'm firmly in the camp of "well now I wish I never started it".
    • As an anime nerd I'm used to shit getting canceled. One of my favorite animes of all time, witchcraft works, only got 12 eps. On the other hand it got a lot more manga which I tracked down and read. Kind of pricey but I couldn't help myself and there weren't any cheap services I could sign up for to read it at.

      With wheel of Time if you like the show you've got I think literally decades of books you can read. I haven't read the series but I think it's got a definitive end. So you're better off than the

    • The wheel of time is such a huge story line I have no idea what they were thinking
      other than not one single person involved in any decision making actually read any of the books. 3 seasons can't even cover a single book properly and there are 15 books currently. There was absolutely no way this was going to play out for the investors. I knew that from the second it was announced regardless of my excitement of the show. If a single book is 30 plus hours to read it'll never be a successful series. They are

  • It's a business, the reasons for renewing or cancelling a show are always financial no matter the environment.

    • It's a business, the reasons for renewing or cancelling a show are always financial no matter the environment.

      I took the comment to mean as compared to say... 5 or 6 years ago, when these streamers were all willing to take a loss to establish a base of subscribers. Now they've got the market penetration they're going to get, and it's time to start looking at costs versus profits.

  • Stories have power.

    But then, so do Studio bottom lines. Great show. Happy for the three seasons.

  • FFS (Score:3)

    by r1348 ( 2567295 ) on Saturday May 24, 2025 @06:02PM (#65402027)

    The Wheel of Time was the good fantasy series on Prime. I guess it made The Rings of Power look even worse in comparison.

    • That's a low bar. The Rings of Power makes bowel cancer look like a better alternative. Amazon wanted to cash in on the success of Game of Thrones and have a compelling fantasy series of their own, but made the mistake of assuming they could just throw enough money at it and it would be successful. I'm surprised that Rings of Power hasn't been cancelled yet either, but they probably sunk so much money into it initially that they'll bleed a little more for it. At least that series is so bad that it underflow

      • As someone with terminal bowel cancer, I can assure you, I'd rather watch Rings of Power than go through this shit. It's not even close either.

  • As poor an adaptation of Jordan (and Sanderson)'s books this was, I still found it very entertaining. Was looking forward to the next season for it.

    • Re:Very disappointed, (Score:4, Funny)

      by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Saturday May 24, 2025 @06:26PM (#65402087)

      As poor an adaptation of Jordan (and Sanderson)'s books this was, I still found it very entertaining. Was looking forward to the next season for it.

      What do you mean a poor adaptation? The books didn’t actually end because the author died 11 books and thousands of pages in, leaving audiences hanging. Now the series dies after three seasons leaving us all hanging again, I mean it did capture the essential element at least.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by SeaFox ( 739806 )

        The books were finished by Brandon Sanderson on volume 14, and if I do say so his contribution was actually a big positive. The pace was lethargic and full of detours into Aes Sedai politics in the last few volumes by Jordan. Sanderson brought the main story back into focus and got the ball rolling on the Last Battle.

        The TV series meddled too much with the main characters to fit the spirit of the books beginnings, and the casting choices we detrimental to the setting of the story.

        • TV and books are very different and you're going to have to adapt stuff to make it it work as TV. Because of that if you're a big fan of the books of anything you're never going to be happy with a TV adoption.

          There's a lot of things you can do in print that's basically impossible in movies and tv.

          The ents are probably the best example. You have literally pages and pages of them calmly meandering and doing fuck all and it's all gets to a point where it's really silly.

          Then they make their decisio

      • what? (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Jordan left notes for Sanderson to finish the job and he did. The style might be a bit different but you 100% got the plot as intended.

        • Sanderson came in and cleared out the rat's nest of plot lines Jordan had bogged himself down with and ended the series on a much better note. The final ending was a little surprising, but from what I understand, Jordan had already written the ending when he started the series, so it's what he intended.

    • OTOH (Score:2)

      by abulafia ( 7826 )
      A faithful adaption would run longer than Simpons + MASH.

    • Jordan's original idea was a trilogy.
      in the third book Rand is supposed to get balefire and then that's it. He wins.

      he was successful with the books so he drew the whole thing out the same way that GRRM is doing.

  • But make sure sure you have enough time - it's 14 heavyweight books.

  • Make a poor adaptation and be shocked when you shut it down because no one likes it?

    > Shocked Pikachu Face

  • After only three of them. Robert Jordan sucks, and the show sucks too. Hence the poor ratings despite all the stupid money poured in.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      You didn't enjoy hearing a dozen times per book about how that one female character pulled her braid when she got angry!?

      "Uh oh, she's angry again for the hundredth time. Will she... oh... oh my God she's doing it! She's pulling her braid again! This is great literature!"

    • I got about four chapters into the first book and gave up. Even the pulp put out by Weisman and Hickman was more interesting. There were a lot of Tolkien knockoffs back in the day, some better, some worse, and Robert Jordan was on the worse side. I struggled through the first season of the show, but it was pretty dire as well.

      Now canceling The Expanse, that was sad.

      • As I just posted above, I only got a few pages into WOT until I gave up. I definitely wanted to love it, but there was nothing to love.
        Weiss and Hickman totally ripped off Tolkein, but they also wrote more entertainingly that he did, at least for their first trilogy. It went downhill after that.
        There has, of course, been a lot of great high fantasy ever since. Earthsea is especially great. Like all firsts, Tolkein started things, but the young ones soon outdid him.
        I do not feel that Harry Potter is espe

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