If you are like me you probably have already devoured both of Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean Series books and are avidly anticipating the upcoming Fourth Wing TV series on Amazon. Michael B. Jordan’s production company is involved, and while it hasn’t been ordered to series yet, the avid fandom around these books is so high I personally feel it would be foolish not to greenlight. However, there are still some questions surrounding the potential series, and one of them has tied in with Game Of Thrones. Weirdly enough, it’s not the Game Of Thrones question I’m personally invested in.
A few months back, Yarros was asked if there is a plan to “avoid an A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones situation.” By this, they mean the fact that HBO’s drama got to a point in the TV series in which there were no books left to work off of, and showrunners Benioff and Weiss were forced to make creative choices with only some input from George R.R. Martin. (The latter seasons on Thrones, in particular the final season, were less critically acclaimed.)
At the time, Rebeccas Yarros confirmed there is a full publication schedule for the Empyrean Series, and also noted there will be five books in total. A release date for the third book, Onyx Storm, is already out and is set to hit shelves on January 21, 2025. To be sure, I am extremely pumped about this, but I have another concern that ties in with Game of Thrones.
The Fourth Wing Question I Have That Also Ties Into Game Of Thrones: Will It Be Expensive Enough?
HBO’s most famous fantasy drama cost an absolute fortune to make. Some estimates have GOT spending $10- $15 million per episode, and if true, at 73 episodes in total, the Warner Bros.-owned company would have been all-in at hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps even bordering on a billion. That’s a lot of money spent.
We've heard some of the more expensive episodes like The Iron Throne cost $15 million to make, per budget reports at the time. Obviously, the cast grew more expensive over time, but Game of Thrones was constantly pricy from a fantasy standpoint, too, and that’s where my concern over Fourth Wing lies: Basically, is it going to be expensive enough to not look terrible?
Fourth Wing is a show about dragons . There are myriad battle sequences with dragons. There are other supernatural creatures and magics channeled through dragons. Dragons are also expensive to create via CGI in projects, which is a little worrisome, as we're talking way, way more dragons in scenes with Yarros' series than in GOT or its more dragon-heavy spinoff House of the Dragon. In short, there are a lot of fantasy elements that need to be achieved at scale. Some of Game of Thrones’ special effects were (often) amazing, but only because the show had the budget, and (usually) the correct scale.
Even then, there were problems and it wasn't always enough. People complain to this day about The Long Night being too dark, and that episode allegedly had a significant budget. People complain about the later seasons feeling too rushed -- they had more budget per episode later on, but fewer episodes overall. And I'm not even getting started on the GOT ending; suffice to say, there are problems.
I don't really want any of that to happen to Fourth Wing. Rebecca Yarros’ novels definitely have the built-in fanbase – in fact, they might be the most exciting book series that’s come out for me personally since maybe The Hunger Games (sorry ACOTAR, whose own project may be DOA) and they deserve a big budget retelling, which means money will need to be invested into the project. And while we don't know how they end yet -- again, the third book, Onyx Storm, is due out in January 2025 -- there is an outline for where the show is going and I'm already invested enough in the characters (OK Xaden) I want to see it done well and not just, well, done.
The show is being set up at Amazon, which is a good sign, as that streamer didn't shy away from overspending when it came to Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The first season of that series allegedly cost around $450 million U.S. to bring to the small screen, which would make it the most expensive series of all time. I'm not saying Fourth Wing will need quite that much budget, but I'd like to see it look better than lower budget fare like The Magicians or Legacies (though those shows are delightful in their own ways).
In order to do The Empyrean series justice, the streamer really needs to put a little money behind the Michael B. Jordan-produced fantasy drama, but I will say there's no project I'm more excited for coming up. Hopefully it will all be worth it.
