‘The Wheel of Time’ Showrunner Comments on the Season 3 Final Episodes’ Shocking Changes

The Wheel of Time has been a quiet hit for Amazon since its 2021 debut. Since then, the series has aired three eight-episode seasons, and the most recent season ended on April 17, 2025 with a shocking final twist.

Based on the series of the same name started by Robert Jordan and now being continued by Brandon Sanderson, the series has introduced a number of changes from the books, and two major changes took place in the Season 3’s final episodes.

In light of that, showrunner Rafe Judkins talked to the press about these major twists and provided the fans with an explanation as to why the series divulged so much from the original books.

Before we continue, we have to warn you that this article is going to contain major spoilers for the Season 3 finale of The Wheel of Time, so be careful how you approach the text that follows.

As you know, the final episodes of the season feature the deaths of two characters who don’t die in the books at this point. Loial (Hammed Animashaun) sacrificed himself during the Battle of Emond’s Field in the penultimate episode, while Siuan (Sophie Okonedo) was killed by Elaida (Shohreh Aghdashloo) in the White Tower after being deposed as the Flame of Tar Valon in the finale.

The stories of these two characters are done in the series, despite the fact that there would have been more to tell based on the books. When commenting on this, Judkin said that the writers were, in fact, very mindful in making these decisions.

“Robert Jordan loves his character so much that he lets them all just collect and they all go to The Last Battle – like everyone makes it there. Which is wonderful for a book series, but is not something that’s practical when you’re casting actors,” Judkin said. “So our first and foremost focus is that when they are with us they’re doing something significant and not just standing off to the side of a scene. We can’t really do that. We have actors who are too good to do that.“

This makes sense from a cinematic standpoint, but Judkin expanded on his initial answer. “Have everyone do their absolute best moments from the books and then we can bid them adieu instead of collecting people and taking them along for the whole ride. We’re super thoughtful about it, there’s a lot that goes into it in the writers’ room,” he confirmed. “There were other characters that were discussed as potential deaths, and we moved away from it thinking about the stories that we have to tell hopefully for the next three or four seasons. So it’s never done without extreme amount of thought.“

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