If you’ve been around Bookstagram or BookTok lately, you may have seen fans going crazy over the release of Onyx Storm. The third novel in Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling Empyrean series had a much-hyped launch unlike anything we’ve seen since the Harry Potter books.
The series follows Violet Sorrengail, who is sent to the Basgiath War College to train as a dragon rider and defend her homeland. The problem is that she is far from willing to take on such a dangerous and grueling role, and countless other students are out to get her due to her mother’s infamous status in the military.
The Empyrean story combines the brutal blood and death of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games series with the Romantasy genre seen in Sarah J. Mass’s ACOTAR books. It is therefore not surprising that this hit is getting its own film adaptation.
If you want to know more about the Fourth Wing TV series (named after the first book), this is all you need to know.
Which streaming platform will air the Fourth Wing TV series?
In October 2023, it was confirmed that the Amazon MGM series and Michael B. Jordan’s Outler Society had optioned the rights to Fourth Wing, meaning it will air on Prime Video. This is home to other popular adaptations such as The Boys and Fallout.
Amazon Prime Video
When could the Fourth Wing show hit Amazon?
Since we’re still so early in the project, it’s difficult to predict a release date. The TV show was first announced in October 2023 by Variety, just after the second book, Iron Flame, hit shelves.
The showrunner was tapped in July 2024 and there has been little news since then. We’re still waiting on a cast and a filming date.
ABC News reported in January that Yarros revealed she had read two drafts of the script at a launch party for Onyx Storm, so things are moving in the right direction. We imagine the next news would revolve around casting before filming and editing can begin.
Production may take some time given the scope and nature of what this show is about. We have lots of dragons to animate, and other special effects and stunts like the dreaded parapet and all the seals of the different characters.
Amazon Prime Video’s other fantasy shows, like The Rings of Power, Good Omens and Wheel of Time, have taken between 18 months and two years from the start of production until they finally hit the screens (or at least for the series not during COVID). So it will probably be the same with Fourth Wing.
If the characters were cast this year and filming started not long after, then we predict Fourth Wing’s first Prime Video hit will be in 2027.
This is of course only an estimate. Hopefully we’ll learn more in the coming months, especially now that there’s more interest in the franchise thanks to the launch of Onyx Storm, which could move things along more quickly.
Who is involved in the Fourth Wing TV show – is there a cast?
Unfortunately, we don’t have any actor announcements yet, so we’re no closer to finding out who will play our beloved Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson.
What we do know is that Yarros is steadfast in her position on who plays the leading male role, as ABC News reports: “My biggest thing has always been: Xaden is not white and I don’t want him to be white on television.”
In the books, Xaden is 23 and is described as tall (about 6 feet 6 inches) and muscular, with windswept dark hair. Meanwhile, Violet is 20 years old and very small, with a delicate body due to fragile bones – a major plot point in Fourth Wing that puts her at a major disadvantage when training as a dragon rider.
Her mother describes her as having “pale skin, pale eyes and pale hair”, although her locks are quite distinctive, as they start out brown and then fade to metallic silver at the ends.
We do know that Moira Walley-Beckett will serve as showrunner. She previously worked on Anne With An E and Flesh and Bone. However, most people will know her work from Breaking Bad. She wrote nine episodes, including the Emmy-winning Ozymandias. Many critics consider this one of the best episodes of television, so that certainly bodes well for the Fourth Wing series.
Yarros has read two drafts of the script and certainly seems pleased with what she’s seen so far, as evidenced by this book interview circulating on TikTok:
Executive producers are Rebecca Yarros, Liz Pelletier for Entangled Publishing and Liz Raposo for Outlier.
Will there be more than one series of Fourth Wing?
According to Deadline, there could be a separate installment for each book… but only if the first one is a success.
For reference, at the time of writing, Yannos is planning a total of five books for the Empyrean series, and we’re only at book three at the moment. That’s plenty of material for a show to draw from for years to come.
What will be the plot of the Fourth Wing TV show?
While we won’t reveal many spoilers here, the series’ official logline from Variety indicates that it will follow the plot of the first book:
Enter the ruthless world of Basgiath War College where only one rule applies: Graduate or Die. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail is expected to live a quiet life surrounded by books and history. Now the commanding general, her badass mother, has instructed Violet to join the hundreds of candidates aspiring to become Navarre’s elite: dragon riders. If the fire-breathing beasts don’t kill her, perhaps one of her fellow riders will. Suspense, action, romance and dragons come together in a propulsive fantasy adventure from NYT bestselling author Rebecca Yarros.
Fourth Wing focuses mainly on the extreme training regime that Violet ends up in at Basgiath. She is already vastly unprepared to ride dragons like her mother and sister do, as she prepared to train in the ways of a scribe. However, she is forced to be part of the squad and as such in many life or death scenarios.
To make matters worse, her mother played a major role in the war – and the university is home to many children of rebel soldiers, including the leader’s son, Xaden. He, and many others, are determined to get revenge, and are only too happy to take it out on Violet.
Fans of the series love Fourth Wing for its political plots, fantasy setting, and brutal violence. At its center is a complicated (and often steamy) romance between enemies and lovers, with plenty of twists and turns along the way.
