All the Wheel of Time season 3 news we’ve heard so far

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the end of season 2 of Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time.]

Season 2 of The Wheel of Time covered a lot of ground. Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) and Lan (Daniel Henney) figured out what life looks like after she loses connection to the True Source (and then gets it back again). Rand (Josha Stradowski) went on a journey to figure out whether he could really handle all his power. Egwene (Madeleine Madden) was trapped by the Seanchan as a damane, while Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) broke free of her own block to her potential. Meanwhile Mat (Dònal Finn) and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) found their own connections to the supernatural, and untapped abilities that might come in handy in the ongoing fight against the Dark One.

And that’s all before we get to that final big battle, where pretty much every force on the continent converges in a fight against each other, with Seanchan and White Cloaks turning on each other, Ishamael (Fares Fares) coming after Rand again, and our intrepid heroes stuck in the middle. The developments in that single hour dramatically reset the board for season 3 — thankfully a season we already know a little bit about.

Is Wheel of Time season 3 happening?

Yes, in fact that was first announced all the way back in July 2022, a full year before season 2 would even debut. We don’t know how many seasons the show will ultimately run, but season 3, at least, is already on the way.

When will Wheel of Time season 3 come out?

There’s no word yet on when exactly it might happen, but it’s probably just around the corner. We know that filming for season 3 began sometime this summer, but it seems like production was shut down during the Screen Actors Guild strike shortly after. The actors strike came to an end on Nov. 9, which means that production on the show’s third season should get underway again sometime in the near future.

This could mean we see it hit Prime Video as early as next year, but if Amazon is intent on spacing out its seasons a little more, it’s possible Wheel of Time doesn’t return until 2025.

What will Wheel of Time season 3 be about?

Given that season 2 covered the second and third book of Robert Jordan’s book series, showrunner Rafe Judkins has confirmed season 3 of Wheel of Time will pick up with the fourth book, The Shadow Rising at least. That being said, it’s not clear how far into the next book the show will go.

Like in the show, Shadow Rising picks up with all of our major characters in the same place, and Rand having embraced his destiny as the Dragon Reborn. Accompanied by Moiraine, Rand heads out to the Aiel Waste, where he will prove he is who he says he is, or else never return.

Wheel of Time season 3 will backtrack a bit, too, getting to some storylines from the second and third books that the show hasn’t quite made it to already. In an interview with Tor.com, Judkins also revealed that we can expect Rand to start his sword training with Lan in the near future, and that his face off with Turak, a favorite moment for book fans, is on the way too.

The upcoming season will also give us more information on what exactly Mat is up to with his special horn, and maybe even meet a few Forsaken who have been hiding in plain sight.

Who is Moghedien, who Lanfear meets at the end of the season 2 finale?

Shadow Rising is also when Jordan started getting into more of the Forsaken, something Judkins has said he’s excited for the opportunity to do. And season 2 teases that with Moghedien, played by Laia Costa, showing up to scare the bejeezus out of Lanfear.

“Coursing out of the Forsaken is something we think a lot about […] who do you meet when, how do they function in the story?” Judkins told Polygon. “When is it exactly the right amount of Forsaken for the audience to be totally 100% in love with each of them? And when is it too many Forsaken that are operational at the same time that it starts to get a little messy and confusing? It’s something that for us we pay a lot of attention to because […] any scene that any of the Forsaken are in should be impactful.

“And so, the reason we did that Moghedien scene was really that you feel the impact of the other Forsaken right at the end, even just feeling Lanfear’s fear — like, a character that you haven’t seen be afraid the entire season suddenly afraid of someone is a great way to be introduced to how the Forsaken function in the rest of the show.”

Should I read the books while I wait for Wheel of Time season 3?

Look we’re not going to tell you whether you should or shouldn’t read a 14 book series. That’s between you and your god. The Prime Video series is almost certainly going to continue sticking to the books (mostly) but that many books is quite a bit of reading to do. The good news is, if you’re just trying to catch up to the show, or read the basis for season 3, you’ll probably only have to read through book 4, The Shadow Rising. But be warned: At 393,823 words, it’s the longest Wheel of Time book out there (which is saying something).