Harriet McDougal, wife of the late Robert Jordan, dropped some exciting news late Thursday: the TV rights to Jordan?s Wheel of Time fantasy epic have been acquired by a major studio.
In the wake of the success of Game of Thrones, and considering the staggering amount of fantasy and sci-fi book properties that have been optioned for TV and film, the absence of The Wheel of Time has been eyebrow-raising. (Or in the parlance of the series itself, perhaps the better term is ?sniff producing??) Fans of the series were given a glimpse into the legal tangle preventing WOT?s emergence onto the small screen on February 9, 2015, when a sudden pilot episode dubbed ?Winter Dragon? aired in the early A.M. hours on the FXX Network. McDougal released a statement clarifying that the pilot was made without her knowledge, prompting Red Eagle Entertainment, the production company behind the pilot, to issue a lawsuit. (Which they later withdrew.) A more detailed account of the behind-the-scenes machinations can be found at io9, but regardless of the details, overall it seemed as if fans would have to wait a very long time to see Jordan?s work on screen in a large-scale production.