Television series

The Wheel of Time

Name: The Wheel of Time
Genre: Drama, Adventure, Fantasy
Released: 2021
Cast: Rosamund Pike, Madeleine Madden, Marcus Rutherford, Zoë Robins, Josha Stradowski

Fourteen doorstop novels compressed into hour-long, richly costumed episodes: a world where channelling magic safely is a female-only privilege, wielded by the ancient Aes Sedai as they hunt for whichever of five ordinary young villagers might be the reincarnated soul destined to save or destroy everything. It's dense, deliberate, occasionally clunky in dialogue, but genuinely ambitious in scope and unusually serious about its cosmology and moral grey areas. Patience required; reward eventual.

TVMaze rating

7.2

If you liked this

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring2001

The book Jordan was both indebted to and quietly arguing with — the fellowship, the wise guide, the world-ending quest, executed with a clarity and momentum Wheel of Time often struggles to match.

But You've probably seen it a dozen times already, and three-plus hours a film is a big ask if you just want more serialised fantasy.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring poster

Game of Thrones2011

The show that made sprawling multi-book fantasy commercially viable for prestige TV, with the same tangle of factions, prophecy and slow-building dread, sharpened by nastier politics and higher stakes.

But The ending soured a lot of goodwill, and the tonal whiplash between grim politics and outright horror won't suit everyone.

The Witcher2019

Another beloved doorstop fantasy saga adapted for streaming, with monster hunts, ancient prophecy and a slow-burn destiny plot that rewards the same patience Wheel of Time demands.

But Season one's timeline-jumping structure is genuinely confusing, and later seasons wobble hard in quality and cast consistency.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dune2021

Swap the Aes Sedai for the Bene Gesserit and you've got the same engine: a secretive sisterhood manipulating bloodlines and prophecy from behind the throne, hunting for one figure who might fulfil, or shatter, their plans.

Villeneuve's Dune does with jaw-dropping visual discipline what Wheel of Time is reaching for in tone — an ancient matriarchal order steering history toward a chosen figure neither of them fully controls.

But It's only the first half of the story, and its austere, glacial pacing is the opposite of comfort-watch fantasy.

His Dark Materials2019

A young-adult fantasy epic with real philosophical ambition, following children whose fates are entangled with prophecy and cosmic forces far beyond their understanding, gorgeously produced by the BBC.

But It's shorter and tighter — three seasons and done — so the world never gets the room to sprawl the way Jordan's does.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power2022

Prime Video's other giant fantasy swing, set millennia before Middle-earth, with the same commitment to expensive vistas, ancient evils stirring, and unhurried mythic pacing.

But It leans harder into spectacle than character, and fans argue endlessly about its liberties with Tolkien's timeline.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power poster

Shadow and Bone2021

A chosen-one fantasy with a young ensemble cast, magic that marks its users as different and dangerous, and a mentor figure whose motives you're never quite sure to trust.

But It's pitched younger and moves faster and glossier than Wheel of Time's slower, weightier approach to worldbuilding.

Merlin2008no page yet

Lighter, warmer fantasy about a young man discovering he's tied to a destiny bigger than himself, guided by secretive magic-users who know more than they're telling him.

But It's aimed at families, episodic in structure, and nowhere near as dark or morally tangled as Wheel of Time.

Legend of the Seeker2008no page yet

A cheerfully old-school prophecy-and-chosen-one adventure, based on another sprawling book series, with magic-wielding sisterhoods and a farm boy destined for greatness.

But It's campier and far lower-budget, more Saturday-afternoon adventure than the solemn, expensive seriousness Wheel of Time aims for.

Willow2022no page yet

A scrappy, underdog fantasy quest series about a ragtag group protecting someone whose fate might decide the world, with the found-family warmth Wheel of Time occasionally reaches for.

But It's breezier and jokier than Jordan's mythology, and got cancelled after one season, so the journey never finishes.

Escaflowne1996no page yet

Same bones as Wheel of Time — a young woman pulled into a war-torn fantasy world where a prophecy and a mysterious powerful presence use her as their pivot point — but told as 90s anime melodrama instead of stately Western high fantasy.

Gorgeously overwrought fantasy anime about fate, war and a girl discovering her role in a prophecy bigger than she wanted, with emotional swings Wheel of Time is usually too solemn to attempt.

But The melodrama is turned all the way up, the mecha-fantasy mashup won't suit everyone, and it's a very different visual language if you've never watched anime.

The Witch2016

Wheel of Time treats female magic as potential salvation; this treats it as the thing a frightened, godly community murders its own daughter over — the same anxiety about power in women's hands, turned savage and intimate instead of epic.

A slow, dread-soaked horror film about a Puritan family convinced witchcraft is loose among them — brutal, beautifully shot, and unnervingly close to Wheel of Time's own fear of what channelling does to people.

But There's no quest, no ensemble, no comfort — just ninety minutes of claustrophobic tension without a single reassuring beat.