Amazon Prime Video recently launched the second season of its fantasy drama “The Wheel of Time” which sees the return of the various stars, including series lead Rosamund Pike as Moiraine Damodred.
Following her altercation with the Dark One (Fares Fares) in the first season finale, Moiraine was cut off from the ‘True Source’, which allows powerful ‘Aes Sedai’ like herself to channel the elements.
So, she starts out the second season dealing with this major loss of her ability and autonomy. It’s a character storyline not in the source material and adds friction to the relationship she shares with swordsman Lan Mandragon (Daniel Henney).
In an interview with Inverse conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strikes, Pike indicates the depowering of Moraine took away one of the big appeals of the role for her:
“The idea of Moiraine being cut off from that was problematic for me. It’s not what I signed up for [jokingly]. One of the things that attracted me to the show was developing the [physical] language of channelling and interpreting how you channel the elements of the universe. So the idea of Moiraine being cut off from that was problematic for me.”
One thing she and co-star Henney did seem to enjoy was to shake up their character dynamic, leading to tense scenes between the pair. Henney explains:
“It was really fun, to be honest with you, to try different things. There were things we tried that were so left field that they couldn’t keep, [but] that’s the beauty of a show like this… It’s scary; you don’t know if the characters should go there. But you’ve got to trust the team around you, the writers – and I think it turned out alright.
Now with that rock [Moraine] gone, he’s able to make some mistakes, spin his tires, figure things out, and it’s important for him. This season is interesting. You have a chance to see [Lan] interact with men his age, have conversations with fellow warders about existential things, questioning life – which he would never do before.”
Pike is coming off rave reviews out of Venice for her supporting performance in Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn,” with the actress already being mentioned as a potential supporting actress awards contender.
The first three episodes of the second season of “The Wheel of Time” are now up on Prime Video, with the remainder airing weekly through to Friday, October 6th.
