A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A hotly anticipated romantasy series without its perfect leads is dead.
But since most people can’t wield lightning at will, it’s taken a few years for Fourth Wingto come together.
And obviously you weren’t alone if the torch you were carrying for the long-ago-announced series being adapted from Rebecca Yarros‘ Eympyreannovels was starting to feel like an eternal iron flame.
Hence the excitement greeting the news that the Prime Video series will starEsther McGregor and Emilio Sakrayaas sparring-then-snuggling dragon riders Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson in the steamy, signet-harnessing saga, which now spans three books.
Yarros teased all the way back in January 2025, when book No. 3 Onyx Storm came out, that she had read two versions of the script and it was “Oh my god” so far.
“It’s really nerve-racking when you read something like that because…you’re trusting someone else with your baby, right?” she shared at a New York event, per video shared by the Flights of Fantasy Podcast. “And you’re trusting someone else to say, like, ‘Hey, this is important in your work, and this isn’t,’ and you kinda get your guard up.”
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Fourth Wing TV Show Cast Revealed: See Who Will Be Playing Violet and Xaden
Since then, fans could only trust that the magicians tasked to bring the kingdom of Navarre to life would use their farsight and put together the best team possible.
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“Violet’s journey in Fourth Wing has sparked a global phenomenon,” noted Amazon MGM Studios head of global TV Peter Friedlander when the project was ordered to series in May. And, it being “one of the most anticipated adaptations in the world,” he said they would do their best to honor “what fans love about the story.”
Well, everythingis a tall order—but so far, so good with the casting. And the showrunning! And directing!
Here is everything to know so far about the Fourth Wing series:
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Set at the military academy Basgiath War College in the kingdom of Navarre, the story follows Violet Sorrengail–who, if she had her way, would happily bury herself among the books and records of the school’s Scribe Quadrant.
But her life changes when her mother, a commander, orders her to train for the dangerous role of a dragon rider. Put to the test, Violet must make up for any lack of physical strength with her intellect to survive as she navigates combat and her fellow cadets, including wingleader Xaden Riorson.
Fourth Wing is the first book in Yarros’ Empyrean series, followed by Iron Flame, Onyx Storm and the short story collection Threshing Day. And you could say BookTok burns for all of them.
And if her last name sounds familiar, well, her dad is a high Jedi general. She previously appeared with her father Ewan McGregor in Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bleeding Love.
Her, er, solo credits include the TV series We Were Liars, High School and Life Is Strange, as well as films such as Babygirl, The Room Next Door and Clean Hands.
Working in both the U.S. and Europe, the German actor has appeared in shows like Tribes of Europa and Those About to Die, plus the movies Rhinegold, Sixty Minutes and Warrior Nun.
While Yarros has said she didn’t share any dream casting ideas with the team making the show, she had one request.
“They know how staunch I am against whitewashing Xaden,” she said during a 2024 event in London. “I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Sakraya is the son of a German-Moroccan mother and Serbian father. Yarros described Xaden in the book as having “warm tawny skin.”
And while the Oscar winner has a lot of irons in the fire, he has thought about the casting process, explaining why featuring new faces along with better-known actors is a good idea.
“When it’s done the right way, I think you can have a nice balance where casting won’t be distracting,” he told the BBC in February 2026. “It allows people to fall in love with the characters that they have imagined in their head without any baggage, with projecting their own feelings on certain casts.”
He admitted he didn’t know whether he’d ever appear on the show, but there was one thing fans could count on.
“It’s nothing cheesy coming out,” the Sinners star said, promising “no obvious choices. I think it’s going to be something that feels honest.”
But though she supports the series, she has stepped back so as not to unduly influence the process.
“I will never say who my perfect fan cast is because the cast is so diverse, and I want to open that up to more diversity,” she said at the 2024 London event. “And I feel like the second I say who I think this character is, that’s who everyone will accept. That’s only who they will accept.”
Moira Walley-Beckett, an alum of shows including Breaking Bad and Anne with an E, was the first showrunner tapped by Outlier in July 2024, and Yarros called her a “brilliant writer.”
But she exited the project a year later and has since been succeeded by Meredith Averill, a producer on The Good Wife and The Haunting of Hill House.
