Casting reports

Esther McGregor and Emilio Sakraya have reportedly been cast as the leads of Prime Video's Fourth Wing series, with McGregor playing Violet Sorrengail and Sakraya playing Xaden Riorson. Deadline first reported the casting, citing sources close to the production, and other outlets, including Variety, have relayed the same sources. Some coverage describes the cast as confirmed, but German reporting noted that Amazon had not commented, and no official announcement appears in the source articles. The series adapts Rebecca Yarros' romantasy novel Fourth Wing, the first book in The Empyrean series.

Story and lead roles

The story follows Violet, a 20-year-old who would rather become a scribe, but whose mother, a commanding general, orders her into the Riders Quadrant at Basgiath War College. There, candidates train to become dragon riders at a school where the rule is graduate or die. Violet also lives with a chronic illness that makes her body fragile. She meets Xaden Riorson, a cadet descended from rebels with shadow-related powers, and the two begin as rivals before their relationship turns romantic.

McGregor, 24, is the daughter of Scottish actor Ewan McGregor. She appeared in Prime Video's We Were Liars as Mirren Sinclair and in the film Babygirl, and the Scotsman reports she is currently shooting Life is Strange, an Amazon series. Sakraya, 30, was born in Berlin and has appeared in several Bibi und Tina films, the series 4 Blocks, the film Rheingold and the series Warrior Nun. He has also finished filming the third season of One Piece on Netflix, where he plays Koza, the leader of a rebel army.

Production and timing

Amazon MGM Studios bought the TV rights to The Empyrean series in 2023, and the Scotsman reports the project was only officially greenlit in May. Meredith Averill is showrunner and executive producer, and Lisa Joy is set to direct the first episode. Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Nolan and Joy are signed as producers, and Yarros is attached as an executive producer. Averill described the fandom at the event where the project was discussed:

“Rebecca's books have become one of the fastest-selling franchises of the 21st century, with a fandom so passionate, so devoted, they don't just read these books, they live in them.”

Amazon has not announced a release date. The Scotsman reports that plans call for adapting the remaining books across several seasons if the first series succeeds.

Books and fan reaction

The source books have sold heavily. La Vanguardia reports that the three published volumes have sold more than 12 million copies in the United States, and that the latest volume, Alas de Ónix, sold 120,000 copies in its first week in Spain. The Independent calls Onyx Storm the fastest-selling adult novel in two decades. The Scotsman reports that books four and five have been confirmed, though no titles or release dates have been announced.

Fans have pushed back on the casting. Fanpage reports that some readers struggle to see the actors as the characters they imagined, while others doubt a live actor can match the appeal of Xaden and would prefer an animated series. The debate runs largely on BookTok, where readers circulate fancasts that assign faces to characters before any adaptation is announced.