The Wheel Of Time's Official 2027 Return Leaves Fans With Concerns

As far as the future is concerned, there's a lot on the way for The Wheel of Time franchise. Multiple new projects are in the works, including several animated series, feature films, and games. Current rightsholder iwot Studios is extremely keen to produce all these at some point in the future, even getting Arcane producer Thomas Vu on board.

That said, nothing has surfaced quite yet. The announcement was only made a few months ago, and animation (as well as game development) takes many years. While some fans are skeptical that iwot will deliver, others are happy that the series is getting releases at all.

There is one 2027 release that's on the way, though. Over on Reddit, fans are discussing the series at large, and why this latest release is concerning.

Just recently, board game publisher Dire Wolf launched a Kickstarter campaign for War of the Dragon: The Wheel of Time. As one of the few major tabletop releases for the series, it's a pretty monumental moment, but fans have concerns.

Some aren't a fan of the nuts and bolts: "I imagine the game actually plays fine, but after reviewing the rules for hero and epic mode, the components shown just have thematic miss after thematic miss after thematic miss. Or just as bad, virtually zero theme shown at all."

One user doesn't like the presentation: "As a WOT fan I just don’t like the generic looking art. I don’t need everything to look like 90s fantasy book covers but something more interesting and bold would be nice." Some fans think that it doesn't pop as much as it should: "From what I've seen so far, it seems very mechanics-first, and for lack of a better term, euro-y. Victory points don't feel like the right fit for a victory condition. The wheel on the player board looks like a gimmick with a weak thematic basis."

Others disagree and just aren't a fan of the price point (for reference, the base pledge is $90): "This looks really cool, especially the draft of the rule book they dropped today. They managed to capture the spirit of the books so well with the development of characters, the clashing of armies and the gathering of allies.​​​​​​​"

The future of The Wheel of Time is up in the air. Although the book series ended back in 2013 (in part thanks to fantasy author Brandon Sanderson), the TV show was one of the most mainstream attempts to bring the tale to general audiences, and it was abruptly canceled after three seasons.

Given how much ground there is to cover with The Wheel of Time, the series ended as barely a drop in the bucket (the series only reached up to book five out of 14). With these new projects, we could yet see a more fully-realized adaptation of The Wheel of Time.