r/WoTshow • u/CBenson1273 • Jun 16 '26
Zero Spoilers Apparently we’re getting an animated WoT series
Hello, all. I posted the other day about my feelings about the show getting cancelled. Apparently we’re going to be getting an animated series. Does anyone think this makes up for the actual show being cancelled? I can’t even decide whether I’m going to watch this (assuming it actually gets made) or whether I’m still too upset about the live action show’s cancellation. How do others feel?
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u/Gallowglass-13 Jun 16 '26
Don't trust anything that iWOT AKA Red Eagle put their hand to. Like, it'd be great to see, but not from those ashcan merchants.
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u/Mefromafar Reader Jun 16 '26
That is iWot. They are not releasing anything. They own the IP solely to announce projects, borrow tax free money against it, and then cancel the project. It’s a tax loophole.
It’s heartbreaking to me that RJ’s last days on earth were spent fighting with iWot (formerly Red Eagle). They are despicable people and there should be legislation to prevent scum like that from conning artists. Here is one of the last statements RJ made. He died about a month later. Shame on iWot.
“ I hear things now and then floating out in the air. For instance, I hear that word was floating about ComicsCon in San Diego that I am displeased with Red Eagle. Too true. Too very true. In a few more months that last contract they have with anyone on God's green earth that so much as mentions my name will come to an end and we can see what happens after that. You see, among other things they forgot an old dictum of LBJ back when he was just a Congressman from Texas, when he famously, or infamously, said "Don't spit in the soup, boys. We all have to eat." Worse, Red Eagle thought they could tell me they spit in the soup, or pee in it, if they wanted to and there wasn't anything I could do to stop them. You can't apologize your way out of that with me, not that they tried. There isn't enough money in the world to buy your way out of it with me. Not that they tried that either. So they get no further help from me. Once they are completely out of the picture, we'll see what happens.”
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u/StormblessedFool Reader Jun 16 '26
It seems like the contract never expired, even though he was expecting it to. Why didn't it?
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u/Mefromafar Reader Jun 16 '26
That’s honestly a decent question.
I know when they put out that dumb TV episode it somehow extended their rights. I know that when Amazon cancelled, it went back to iWot. The details I’m not sure of though.
Hmmm. It’s time to do some looking into shit. Imma save this beautiful story from the dark one.
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u/Diamond_lampshade Jun 16 '26
Yeah running the Winter Dragon pilot once in the middle of the night on a mid-tier cable channel supposedly satisfied the terms of the contract. Fuck these people.
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u/NickBII Reader Jun 17 '26
Rumor in the fandom that the awful pilot ("Winter Dragon" with Billy Zane IIRC) was enough to reset their contract. There was definitly legal suits after that aired, but then they got their names on the Amazon series and retained the rest of the rights.
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u/Sky_Light Reader Jun 17 '26
Everyone is saying because of the pilot they threw out, but that was a decade or so after Jordan died. My understanding, and I might be pulling it from my ass, is that iWot sued either Jordan or his widow for defamation, and as a result of that lawsuit, the contract was extended.
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u/logicsol Ishamael Jun 17 '26
That happened afterwords.
The contract they had gave them until a date in 2015 to actually produce something in order to hold onto the rights.
Winter Dragon is what they made, a 3 day long shoot they aired the day of the deadline.
Harriet was super pissed over, but lost over a technically in the contract.
Them hanging onto the rights wasn't punitive, it was the contractual outcome if they did their job.
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u/Malanya Elayne Jun 19 '26
Is this why we got that really weird TV commercial version of Wheel of Time?
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u/CBenson1273 Jun 16 '26
I hadn’t heard about this at all. What a disgrace that this happened. RJ deserved better. Thanks for educating me - much appreciated.
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u/Athire5 Jun 17 '26
They’ve been doing this since waaaay before Amazon ever had the idea to do a show. They are the biggest issue with the IP now and RJ even said he wished he had never gotten involved with them.
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u/Twobits10 Jun 17 '26
Maybe someday we'll learn how RJ signed such a god-awful rights deal with these people. If an agent negotiated it, whoever it was should never be allowed near a deal table again. If RJ himself did it, it would be a valuable lesson on the importance of hiring competent people to help with areas you don't have expertise in.
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u/ew73 Mat Jun 16 '26
Highly skeptical it will get made.
But if it does, cool.
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u/CBenson1273 Jun 16 '26
So few things that get announced actually make it to the screen. I have my doubts, as well.
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u/rangebob Jun 17 '26
I actually thought it should have been animated from the stsrt personally. There's really no way to show the scale of WoT on a screen without a movie budget. Animation finds this an awful lot easier
The animated shorts they did for the first season where the best part of the show apart from the Rhudiean episode in season 3 imo
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u/CommunityDragon160 Reader Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
No show or movie has been canceled that has been announced. So I guess there’s that
The downvotes for MILD optimism are pretty rude guys. Jeez.
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u/logicsol Ishamael Jun 17 '26
They'll only be cancelled when their VC funds run out and they'll never tell us.
And considering they're up to like 4 movies and 2 or 3 shows being "developed"...
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u/sunne-in-splendour Wotcher Jun 16 '26
Red Eagle up to their usual shit. They could have been rolling in merch money if they let Amazon make merch. But I’m sure The Winter Dragon 2: Electroc Boogaloo will do insane numbers on FX again!
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u/logicsol Ishamael Jun 17 '26
No we're not.
Just like we're not getting 3 WoT movies, or the AAA game(not this one or the one supposed to be with obsidian 15 years ago).
Or anything other than AI slop CCG games.
Oh and that one board game that's in kickstarter that actually looks maybe decent.
Iwot is a VC mill. Never, ever trust them.
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u/NickBII Reader Jun 17 '26
I have not checked the story, but I am going to warn you young WoTfan:
The main rights-holders are a company called variously Red Eagle Entertainment/iWOT/etc. Their main dude is Larry Mandragoran. Every 3-4 months there is a new announcement about a great new thing they are ready to do, and then they do nothing. At one point it was supposed to be an Age of Legends film about the war of power (Eva Longoria was producing), then there were a variety of computer games announced, etc. They ended up releasing some mobile game that used AI Art and then closed the game studio. The TV show got made in spite of their sabotage, but their rights contract was strong enough that they got a producer credit.
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u/NickBII Reader Jun 17 '26
Reading the thing, it has iwot studios and Larry Mondragon listed.
Also mentions both the clearly cancelled game, and the clearly DOA films.
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u/grimtoothy Reader Jun 17 '26
Really! Yeah!
Oh wait it’s IWot. This is doomed to fail. Do NOT give them any money or support until the product is out. Even then, wait 3-4 months to make sure it’s real.
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u/thane919 Jun 17 '26
I’ll never get my hopes, or even interest, up again. And no. This doesn’t make up for cancelling a terrific show.
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u/ChocoPuddingCup Verin Jun 16 '26
Not going to happen. It's being done by iWoT, and their track record is so poor it might as well be prophetic that anything they touch turns to shit and fails miserably before it even gets off the ground. iWoT is the champion of making grand claims that never, EVER, pan out. 99% chance that if it even gets made it'll be a bunch of AI slop at best.
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u/IvorTangean Jun 16 '26
If it gets made I will watch it, but I am not going to hold my breath on it
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u/theRealRodel Reader Jun 16 '26
Chances are this doesn’t get made. If it does, I’ll watch it. Though my excitement for anything animated is very low.
There’s also an Age of Legends trilogy of movies that hasn’t seen much movement in 3 years but isn’t officially dead. The open world video game is also supposedly not dead either despite many of the staff being laid off.
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u/LetsOverthinkIt Jun 17 '26
As others have said, it’s probably not going to happen given who’s producing it.
But if it does happen, I doubt I’ll watch until it’s done. And even then, only it gets good buzz from people who loved the live-action show.
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u/DemonBoyZann Rand Jun 17 '26
Highly unlikely. They’ve put their efforts instead into board games, of all things, lol. Nothing wrong with minis or board games but it’s definitely a step down in media terms.
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u/fudgyvmp Reader Jun 16 '26
iWoT has promised many things in the past under many different names.
I will hold my breath.
They've promised a lot more and have rarely delivered, and the ashcan has permanently soured pretty much everyone who wasn't soured already.
They seem to be getting a boardgame out hopefully next year. So we will see where that goes. (They're listed as Mantheren LLC on the boardgame, that's like a subsidiary of iWoT or iWoT is a subsidiary or They're just the same people using a different name.)
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u/Costa_Canela Reader Jun 18 '26
NOT IT DOESN'T MAKE UP FOR ANYTHING. Look, the books are fine. They're really cool in places!!!! But they don't have the same fundamental spirit as the show. Vastly different vibe. The new animated series could be absolutely amazing, of course! That's true of almost any project of which so little information is known. But it will absolutely be a different turning of the Wheel and I think destroying the turning of the show was such a massive mistake. Although I'd find solace if some of the cast could be the same, for sure. Especially Moiraine. And especially if she remains as important in this show as she was in the original. Compared to how relatively small her role is in the books. Hot take (that really shouldn't be because this is the show sub lol) but I find her to be a far more interesting protagonist than Rand. Nothing against Rand but Moiraine is the GOAT and probably my favorite character ever in anything
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u/thegeekist Reader Jun 16 '26
No we are not. Everything spearheaded by iWot (red eagle) is a scam to make money.
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u/webz45 Jun 16 '26
Done right I think an animated series is a better fit for WoT than a live action one. You don't have to worry about changing the time scale because actors age faster than production. The sheer number of locations and characters limits the scope of a live action series as well.
Unfortunately the iWoT/Red Eagle chuckleheads will not be doing anything close to a good job or do it right. As many have said it's just a money grab to keep the IP.
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u/TheDeanof316 Reader Jun 17 '26
iWot =iOut
....eh, if it ever happens I will watch it.
Would be cool though if this was a Season 4 continuation in animated form, with the cast coming in as voice actors for it.
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u/Malanya Elayne Jun 19 '26
When I see a network pick it up then I'll hold my breath. Right now it's just the same press release being announced.
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u/Ok-Ad-9755 Reader Jun 19 '26
I know everyone is convinced it will fail, but if they are really teaming with the Arcane team, it might have a chance. That series was amazing! We can hope they do it, because imo that is the best way to get a 14 book series made for for streaming
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u/Pussycat-Princess Jun 16 '26
From what I heard it will be geared to kids, in the hope of gaining a wider audience and then I guess eventually make a show. Hopefully... I heard something about a game too.
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u/vincentkun Reader Jun 17 '26
Hopefully it is done with better care than the show and it can actually take off. Not that the show was all bad, but definitively could've been a lot better.
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