“The wheel has turned” for the series adapted from Robert Jordan’s novels. A few weeks after the broadcast of the final episode of season 3, Prime Video has decided on the future of its first fantasy production. Against all expectations, The Wheel of Time joins the list of series that have been canceled in mid-flight. According to Deadline, the adventures of Moiraine, Rand, and Nynaeve will not receive a fourth season. This cancellation comes as Prime Video is becoming profitable. The company’s CEO reportedly invited his employees to abandon original productions to focus on broadcasting sporting events.
Nevertheless, creator Rafe Judkins knew he had a sword of Damocles hanging over his head, so he made sure not to open up new narrative avenues that he couldn’t explore. This decision should still leave a bitter taste in the mouths of viewers, who had witnessed a real rise in power of the series for its third season. After two imperfect first rounds, The Wheel of Time finally seemed to have found its tempo. It will never have the opportunity to consolidate its progress.
As is often the case, the audience figures were not up to par. While the series had made its way into the Nielsen ranking of the most-watched series on American soil at the launch of its third season, it quickly disappeared from the radar. A drop in audience figures which, given the budget allocated for this type of production, will not have convinced Prime Video to come back. This is a bad sign for fantasy on the small screen.
Is fantasy running out of steam?
After the success of Game of Thrones on HBO, all platforms and channels have thrown themselves into adapting fantasy classics. Netflix devoted itself to The Witcher and Shadow and Bone while Disney+ offered Willow a resounding comeback years after her first adventures under the leadership of George Lucas. On Prime Video, The Wheel of Time served as an introduction before The Rings of Power. For its part, HBO continues with the imagination of George R.R. Martin and his series House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdom. Six years after the start of the fantasy craze that took over the small screen, the results are rather bleak.
On Netflix, the children's series Shadow and Bone was canceled after only two seasons, while offerings like Cursed: The Rebel were released to total indifference. Even the adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's books, aided by the popularity of CD Projekt's games, failed to maintain its longevity. The series, formerly starring Henry Cavill, suffered from critical acclaim and is only expected to return for two more seasons. Willow was also a notable setback for Disney+, as the series was canceled and removed from the company's catalog.
In fact, even the audiences for The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power showed signs of weakness when season 2 aired. Is fantasy no longer of interest? However, in its analysis of the American audiovisual landscape in 2024, Parrots Analytics reported growth for the genre.
Between 2022 and 2024, the share of fantasy series watched in the United States increased from 8.1 to 9.1%, with a peak of 12.1% in the first quarter of 2023. Fantasy remains one of the most represented genres on the small screen, ahead of science fiction and its 6%. The fact remains that these productions require budgets that entertainment giants are now more reluctant to invest.
Proof, if any were needed, of the platforms' growing disinterest in the genre and its derivatives, several series inspired by literary phenomena have been canceled. Romantasy, which adopts imaginary contexts to focus its attention on romance, was expected to be the trend for the next few years on streaming platforms. However, the genre has seen several of its flagship adaptations sidelined.
Fourth Wing on Prime Video has not been heard from since its official release, while the series A Court of Thorns and Roses has been abandoned by Hulu. It remains to be seen whether even productions from the illustrious universes of Middle-earth and Westeros will be the next victims of budget cuts by streaming giants and television networks.
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