It’s been less than a month since word first broke that Amazon had decided to cancel its beloved fantasy series The Wheel of Time after three seasons, but the fans have quickly picked up their swords to fight to save the show.
Fans have been doing everything in their power to try to save the series, launching an active fan campaign in support of the show. Over 130,000 fans have signed a petition fighting to get the show renewed for season 4, and over $22,000 has been raised to help with the campaign efforts, with the goal being to use the funds to amplify the campaign. This has included the purchase of billboards in support of the Save Wheel of Time campaign, the first of these billboards debuting in Times Square on June 6.
It goes without saying that fans aren’t giving up on the show and it seems neither neither is its showrunner.
After taking some time to process Amazon’s decision, The Wheel of Time showrunner Rafe Judkins finally broke his silence in a lengthy statement addressing the show’s surprising cancellation.
"I've been asked the same question many times the last week — why was The Wheel of Time canceled? And the truth is, I don't know. I wish I could say something clear and tidy that explains to all those who love it why it's coming to an end, but sadly, I can't,” Judkins began. “What I can say is that the actors and crew on our show are the most talented and wonderful group of people I've ever had the pleasure to work with. And we've all been incredibly lucky to make something that not only was beloved by fans (and even critics! ha!), but was also watched by huge numbers of people all over the world, appearing in the Nielsen Top 10 for nearly 20 weeks, a feat very few shows have been able to match in the last decade.”
In closing his statement, Judkins addressed the elephant in the room: Could The Wheel of Time season 4 still happen? While he’s just as uncertain about the show’s future as the fans, he offered a message of hope to the fans, pointing out that a big factor in choosing Amazon as the show’s home came from seeing how the service stepped up to save The Expanse. While it’s clear he does not know what the future will hold, he’s hoping they will be able to continue the show and give fans the chance to see the story finished.
“Will The Wheel of Time get to do that with another network and finish the story? Sadly, it's not something that happens often. But it does happen. In fact, one of the reasons we first chose Amazon as a home for the show was because they were in the midst of picking up The Expanse after SYFY cancelled it. So, who knows, perhaps the Wheel of Time show will do what the books have always managed to do since day one — defy the traditional definitions of "beginnings" and "ends". I certainly hope it does — because this book series and these fans deserve to see the story finished."
There’s really no telling if The Wheel of Time stands a chance at being saved, but it goes without saying that we haven’t seen this large of a Save My Show campaign in quite some time. The efforts by the fans are very much in line with what we witnessed from the Manifest fandom, which fought hard to save the show after NBC canceled it following the show’s third season. Those efforts proved successful as Manifest was later saved by Netflix, which gave the show a final season to close out its storyline with a proper ending.
We can only hope that The Wheel of Time fans will also get a happy ending, as we fully agree that the cancellation felt premature, and this was a show that had just begun to hit its stride