Five More Join Rosamund Pike in Amazon's Wheel of Time Series

Update 8/19/20: Amazon's epic series Wheel of Time has added five more people to its ranks. The streaming service announced on Wednesday that the series has added Sophie Okonedo as Siuan Sanche, Kae Alexander as Min Farshaw, Kate Fleetwood as Liandrin Guirale, Peter Franzen as Stepin, and Clare Perkins as Kerene Nagashi. 

They join Criminal Minds alum Daniel Henney, whose casting was announced last September, and Rosamund Pike who will lead the genre series based on the bestselling fantasy. TV Guide's original story with more casting announcements are below. 

The Wheel of Time is getting into gear. Amazon Prime has announced the main cast of its upcoming series adaptation of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time novels.

Last summer, the official Twitter for the series revealed that Josha Stradowski will star in the series as Rand al'Thor, with Marcus Rutherford taking on the role of Perrin Aybara, Zoë Robins portraying Nynaeve, Barney Harris appearing as Mat Cauthon, and Madeleine Madden starring as Egwene Al'Vere. The quintet will join the show's previously announced lead Rosamund Pike, who stars as Moiraine, a member of the Aes Sedai.

12 Shows That Are Trying to Be the Next Game of Thrones

The Wheel of Time is based upon Jordan's sprawling 14-part book series (the last three installments of which were written posthumously by fellow fantasy author Brandon Sanders). The high fantasy series presents a world filled with magic, access to which is restricted to certain women. The series will begin with the events in the prequel New Spring, which follows Moiraine's journey to take a group of youths, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, to the city of Tar Valon to prepare for the ultimate fight with the Dark One.

Showrunner Rafe Judkins took to Twitter to expand upon Wednesday's casting news. Of Rutherford's casting process, he wrote, "This man walked into the room, read a scene that made every single person watching cry, and walked out. We all looked at each other and said, 'He is Perrin.'" He also heaped praise on Robins, writing, "We had the pick of the world on these cast members. Sent about two dozen Nynaeve tapes to the writers' room to see who everyone liked and every. single. person. had one response -- 'Zoe.'" He also promised fans of the books they will "fall over dead" when they see Harris as Mat and said that Madden will elevate the character Egwene, who is already someone he deeply admires.

Discover your new favorite show: Watch This Now!

Amazon's adaptation is the latest of several efforts to adapt Jordan's series. A would-be NBC miniseries was announced in 2000 but ultimately sputtered out. Then, Universal's plans to adapt it to film in 2008 went nowhere, and FXX aired a pilot called "Winter Dragon" in the middle of the night in February 2015, but it was scathingly rebuked by Jordan's widow. Sony Pictures TV finally landed the rights to adapt The Wheel of Time to series in 2017 and announced Judkins' attachment as writer and producer right away.

Check out all of the casting announcement tweets from Amazon below.