--- title: Breaking Down The Wheel of Time S2 Premiere description: How season 2 of the Amazon Prime show differs from The Wheel of Time books canonical: https://time.com/6310201/wheel-of-time-season-2-explained/ author: Leigh Butler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-09-01T13:01:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:53:03.367Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Breaking Down The Wheel of Time S2 Premiere og:description: How season 2 of the Amazon Prime show differs from The Wheel of Time books og:url: https://time.com/6310201/wheel-of-time-season-2-explained/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d566810aaa55470/698a3ff016d8848debc3c2b7/WOFT_S2_UT_THIJAN_00998_1_3000.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: WOFT_S2_UT_THIJAN_00998_1_3000 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Breaking Down The Wheel of Time S2 Premiere twitter:description: How season 2 of the Amazon Prime show differs from The Wheel of Time books twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d566810aaa55470/698a3ff016d8848debc3c2b7/WOFT_S2_UT_THIJAN_00998_1_3000.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How _The Wheel of Time_ Season 2 Departs From the Book Series > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Leigh Butler](https://time.com/author/leigh-butler/) ## Leigh Butler Sep 1, 2023 1:01 PM UTC  Mat Cauthon played by Dónal Finn Mat Cauthon played by Dónal FinnJan Thijs—Prime Video by [Leigh Butler](https://time.com/author/leigh-butler/) ## Leigh Butler Sep 1, 2023 1:01 PM UTC **Warning: This post contains spoilers for** **_The Wheel of Time_** [_The Wheel of Time_](https://time.com/6131394/wheel-of-time-season-finale-review/) is back for a second season and promises to be a wild and weird ride for fans of the books that inspired the Amazon Prime series. The end of season 1 saw some fairly major [divergences from the first novel of the book series](https://time.com/6121275/wheel-of-time-books-explained/) by Robert Jordan, and many fans had issues with those changes—even if some deviations from canon were likely dictated by circumstances, rather than on purpose. Production on season 1 of _The Wheel of Time_ was plagued with problems, mostly related to multiple Covid-related work stoppages, but also from the departure of Barney Harris, the actor playing Mat Cauthon, one of the central characters of the story, before production was complete. The specifics of why Harris left the series were never clarified, but it necessitated a marked change in how the story progressed in the show versus how it did in the books. Instead of going to the Eye of the World with the rest of his friends, Mat abandoned them and ended up returning to Tar Valon, the city of the Aes Sedai. Though far from the only way the show departed from the books, it was definitely one of the most significant, and altogether left many fans questioning whether season 2 would get the story back on track. **Read More:** [How Amazon's _The Wheel of Time_ Stacks Up Against Its Source Material](https://time.com/6122162/wheel-of-time-amazon-book/) Based on the first four episodes of season 2, the answer is both yes and no. But so far, that seems to be a good thing, even if it may deprive some book fans of some of their more cherished scenes from the original story. ## **Taking the road differently traveled**  Avienda played by Ayoola Smart, Perrin Aybara played by Marcus Rutherford Jan Thijs—Prime Video Season 2, premiering Sept. 1 on Amazon Prime with three new episodes, ostensibly follows the events of _The Great Hunt_, the second book in The Wheel of Time series. But from the start, things are already going very differently. At the beginning of the book, for example, all the main characters, including Rand al’Thor and Mat Cauthon, reconvene at the walled city of Fal Dara, where Moiraine sets her machinations in motion for the Two Rivers folk, and (among other things) Rand meets with the leader of the Aes Sedai, Siuan Sanche, who tells him he is the Dragon Reborn. When the Shienaran lord Ingtar sets out for his hunt for the fabled Horn of Valere, Rand, Mat and Perrin all go with him. None of this occurs in the first few episodes of the show. Rand, having faked his death at the end of the first season, has instead traveled to the city of Cairhien alone, where he has embarked on a casual sexual relationship with a mysterious and beautiful innkeeper named Selene, while working at a sanitarium in the city for purposes of his own. Mat has been taken captive in the White Tower by the Red Sister Liandrin Sedai, and befriends a fellow prisoner named Min Farshaw, the reluctant seer and fortune teller we met in the first season. Perrin, meanwhile, is the sole Two Riversian to go with Ingtar on his hunt for the Horn, where they run afoul of a mysterious invading force named the Seanchan, with muzzled women who can channel, led by a Lady Suroth. To fans of the novels, this will all seem like a bizarre progression of events indeed. Even Egwene and Nynaeve’s adventures in the Tower, which so far adhere much more closely to their book counterparts, are slowly diverging from the events as they happened in the novels. **Read More:** [The 34 Most Anticipated TV Shows of Fall 2023](https://time.com/6309384/best-tv-shows-fall-2023/) As a longtime fan of the books, watching the events of the first few episodes of season 2 unfold has been like watching a game of Telephone: each change in the story, inadvertent or otherwise, generates another and another, resulting in a bizarre funhouse version that is _sort of_ like the original, but hopelessly distorted by all the iterations in between. Somehow, though, it works for the show, adhering to the spirit of _The Wheel of Time_ books, rather than to the letter. The differences have turned out to be more fascinating than upsetting, making it so that someone who is intimately familiar with the original version will only have the broadest idea of how _this_ version of the story will proceed. It means that even though I knew very well that a certain ambiguously portrayed character would indeed turn out to be evil, for instance, the _way_ in which they were exposed was genuinely shocking. Everything is mixed up: things that happen much later happen earlier, and vice versa; characters who never interact or barely interact in the novels are now intimately involved with each other; things that happen in one place happen in another. It’s not clear how (or whether) the show will manage to keep everything moving in the eventual correct direction, but it’s going to be very interesting to watch them try. ## **The Mat Cauthon sized elephant in the room**  Mat Cauthon played by Dónal Finn Jan Thijs—Prime Video The biggest question most fans want to know about season 2, of course, is: How does the recast character of Mat Cauthon, now played by Irish actor Dónal Finn, fare compared to Harris’ portrayal of him in season 1? Opinions will vary, of course, but after reviewing the first four episodes, it’s clear Finn has done an excellent job of stepping into Harris’ shoes, settling well into that irreverent, roguish air that makes Mat a fan favorite. Compared with Harris, Finn’s Mat is more jaded and perhaps a bit bitter at the lousy hand he’s been dealt since we saw him last, but he’s also refusing to let it quash his spirit—or his snark. The only real downside with Mat is in how the show has altered his storyline, meaning that some of his more iconic scenes from the books are unlikely to occur in the show. For example, in one moment from the books, Mat inadvertently finds himself in a duel with two prospective Warders in the White Tower, armed with only a quarterstaff while his opponents wield swords—and he defeats them both, decisively. The scene, besides being gripping in its own right, is our first indication that Mat just may be more than he seems, and a force to be reckoned with; but the way Mat’s story unfolds in the show, that never happens—at least not yet. **Read More:** [8 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books That Deserve a Screen Adaptation](https://time.com/6144766/sci-fi-fantasy-books-that-deserve-movie-adaptations/) Likewise, it is unclear how the ways Mat becomes a hero in the books—or any of the ways Rand, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve become heroes, for that matter—will come to pass in the show, if at all. The show, having been forced off the path of the original story, has clearly decided to lean into it, rather than scramble back to the path laid by the books. Screen adaptations of books cannot ever be an exact replica of the stories that drew in ardent fans—but the hope is that they turn out to be worthy of love in their own right. As _The Wheel of Time_ journeys into season 2, it will be intriguing to see whether the show achieves that end. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6310201/wheel-of-time-season-2-explained/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6310201/wheel-of-time-season-2-explained/"},"headline":"How The Wheel of Time Season 2 Departs From the Book Series","datePublished":"2023-09-01T13:01:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:53:03.367Z","description":"How the Amazon Prime series departs from The Wheel of Time books","url":"https://time.com/6310201/wheel-of-time-season-2-explained/","keywords":["Television","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d566810aaa55470/698a3ff016d8848debc3c2b7/WOFT_S2_UT_THIJAN_00998_1_3000.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Leigh Butler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/leigh-butler/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d566810aaa55470/698a3ff016d8848debc3c2b7/WOFT_S2_UT_THIJAN_00998_1_3000.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"WOFT_S2_UT_THIJAN_00998_1_3000","caption":"Mat Cauthon played by Dónal Finn","creditText":"Jan Thijs—Prime Video","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6310201/wheel-of-time-season-2-explained/","name":"How The Wheel of Time Season 2 Departs From the Book Series"}}]}] ```