Supporting Villains

Padan Fain, who is kind of the Gollum of this series (no, not the Golem, that's later), needs to be played by an older actor who can play skulkingly evil but at the same time, cannot be immediately picked out as a definite villain as soon as he's on screen. David Bradley, most famous as Mr. Filch in the Harry Potter movies, and who has also appeared in The Tudors, Doctor Who and Game of Thrones, could probably sell this part pretty well.

John Rawls, an Australian who I'm mostly familiar with as a vampire from 30 Days of Night, just looks creepy, and I think he'll be a good guy to take on all the Myrdraal and Draghkar roles, including Shaidar Haran.

Mickey Sumner seems to sum up the kinda pretty, mostly bitchy look of Darkfriend Mili Skane, aka: Lady Shiaine Avarhin, a minor villain who, like a double-sided coin, always seems to turn up. She's actually probably one of the most oft-appearing villain characters.


I cast Irish actor Anthony Brophy (The Tudors) in the role of Daved Hanlon, mainly because he's as close as I can figure to what "hatchet faced" looks like, plus I like the guy. Not a huge part, though.

For the Golem, who might make a fun recurring villain even if the plot line that introduces him isn't used, I decided it would be more necessary that the actor be a contortionist than that he possess a ton of acting skill. I almost went to the go-to contortionist/actor Doug Jones, but the part is pretty small, so I googled for others and came up with British contortionist Richard Rosson, aka Rubber Ritchie. He'll more than do.

Lord Luc Mantear, and his dreamworld counterpart Isam "Slayer" Mandragoran, are two more parts that require large actors and since both are men of few words, acting talent is secondary to look and height. Spencer Wildling will play Luc, because he's more likely to sound like he belongs in that world, while Robert Maillett will play Slayer.

Spencer Wildling

Robert Maillett

Next Up: Whitecloaks!

The Aiel

Dear lord, there are a ton of Aiel characters. I gave up, I admit it. Aside from the ones I know are fairly prominent, I simply did not cast the others. No TV series can fit that many characters, not to mention how I had to make sure I found tall actors with lighter skin so that they can be red-headed (or blonde). I've always wondered; why are the desert-dwellers all red-headed, light-skinned people? I mean, if Rand's heritage weren't tied in with this group, I would almost suggest changing them to look Brazilian, or something, especially since they apparently share heritage with the Tuatha'an, who are described as dark-skinned. Anyway, I only worried about casting sixteen Aiel characters. The rest will probably be featured extras or one-or-two-episode guest stars. Honestly, probably some of those I cast will be little more than that.

The main Aiel character, Aviendha, will be one of the series's major focus, so I'm listing her first. She must be beautiful, strong-looking and a good actress. I've heard good things about Charlotte Salt (left) but don't know much about her.

Rhuarc, the strong Clan chief of the Tardaad Aiel, presented the first major problem casting Aiel males; that they must be A) tall and B) red-headed or at least believable as a redhead. Joseph Mawle (right) is not a redhead, but looks like a good Rhuarc to me, and I liked his work on Game of Thrones, which is what convinced me he could play Rhuarc.

Bair will, I think, be the most prominent of the Wise Women/Dreamwalkers, at least on the show. So, I took a risk and cast a woman whom viewers will probably recognize from Rome and a few other series; one Lindsay Duncan (left). I realize I've already cast one of Rome's leading ladies. This one will be the last, I promise (and they won't be onscreen together).\

Sharon Maughan (right) will play Rhuarc's first wife, the first Dreamwalker seen, Amys. She's another I don't know the work of, but she looks like a good Aiel Wise Woman.

For Sulin, Roofmistress of the Roofmaidens of Rhuidean and Rhuarc's second wife, I chose Eva Birthistle (left). Like Sharon Maughan I'm not familiar with her work, but her look is right.

The other wise women are Melaine and Seana, the latter of whom will not be around long, but long enough I felt she should be cast. Melaine will be played by Stacey Roca (left) and Seana will be played by Susannah Harker (right).

As long as we're talking about Wise Women, might as well cover the villainous one too. Sevanna is the voluptuous Wise Woman of the Shaido who is one of those boo-hiss evil characters, but is supposed to be quite beautiful. I chose Rebecca Mader to play her, based on her look.

Now let's move on to some male characters. Bael is described by Rand as the tallest man he has ever seen. Coming up with someone for that was a tall order (heh heh) and made me irritated (again) that Jordan has so many very tall characters. Nathan Jones (left) is an ex-wrestler and part-time actor who is from Australia, so if we don't over-burden him with lines, he shouldn't sound out of place, and he'll look the part to a T.

Couladin, of the Black Eyes Sept of the Shaido Aiel, is an antagonistic character who is Rand's main challenge within the Aiel camps in Book Four, but isn't around much longer. Even though he's mainly done gay porn, I like the look of Irish actor Seth Fornea (he's even the right height!), and besides, if Game of Thrones can cast porn actors why can't The Wheel of Time? By the way, for those curious, no, I don't watch gay porn, and I found Fornea by googling for tall red-headed British actors.

Matthew G. Taylor

Gaul is one of the more prominent male Aiel characters, in this case mostly a good guy. He's around a lot, but isn't a far-developed character, so he'll likely just be one of the characters called upon to do action scenes and the like. For that, I cast stunt actor Matthew G. Taylor, who looks perfect.

Daniel Cudmore

Jess Rowland

Rolan is only in a couple of the books, but has a large role to play, so I decided to go with a somewhat recognizable actor; a Canadian this time. You man remember Daniel Cudmore from the X-Men and Twilight movies. He's very tall, has a deep voice, and his hair can be taken care of with a wig.

Finally among the males, the first Aiel we ever meet, Urien, is prominent for one book and then never shows up again, so I didn't feel the accent was important. American soap actor Jess Rowland looks very Aiel-ish, so, I cast him.

Tatiana Szalay

Josephine de la Baume

Jo Woodcock

And now for the Shield Maidens. I only cast three, because I think these three can be the "Face" of the Shield Maidens. They are, in order, Tatiana Szalay as Bain, Josephine de la Baume as Chiad and Jo Woodcock as Jalani.

Next Up: Supporting Villains!

Supporting "Good" Characters

Zarine Bashere, aka Faile, the name she's mostly known by, is...well, a polarizing character, to say the least, but she's aligned with the good guys and thus belongs on this list. A lot of fans apparently think she's supposed to look Chinese or something, based on how it says her eyes are slightly slanted, but I don't think she is, myself. She fits in too well, looks-wise, in placed that a noticeably different-looking face would be commented on. So, I chose a white actress for her (although I certainly would not object to a TV series making Saldaeans oriental in appearance; I just chose not to go that way). Eleanor Tomlinson (left) could soften the annoyingness of the character somewhat.

Queen Morgase Trakand is a "good" character who makes bad choices and gets humbled somewhat during the storyline. I wanted an actress who was the right age to have a child as old as Elayne but who didn't look middle-aged, and I think I found her in Frances O'Connor (right). She's 45 but looks ten years younger. Her coloring is also appropriate. She's a recognizable face (she's on Mr. Selfridge at the moment) but won't be required to be in every episode, so she can balance the two.

Gareth Bryne is one of those characters that I feel will probably appear more often in the series than he did in the books, because fans seem to really like him. He's a genuinely good man, and more the classic definition of the hero. The books are light on description for him, continually mentioning his "bluff" face (whatever that means), but Steven Waddington (left) just has that look of strong, don't-screw-with-him battle leader that I feel Bryne needs.

Another fan favorite is Elyas Machera, former Aes Sedai Warder turned wild Wolfbrother. He's described as "older" but I always pictured him looking kind of "wolfish" himself, and I wanted an actor that could portray that look. I'm not familiar with the work of David Sterne (right), but I like his look.

I actually went with an actor I'm pretty familiar with for Bayle Domon, the Illianer ship captain. As the most major character from Illian we meet, his way of speaking could get annoying in the wrong actor's hands, so I picked Vincent Regan (left) as a way of softening the impact. He's a good actor and looks like a world-weary hero, so viewers should take him seriously.

For Martyn Tallanvor, I picked Ben Price (right), another young-looking middle-aged man (41) who looks appropriate to be a guardsman and appropriate to be a love-interest for Morgase. Once again, I don't really know much about his work, but he looks right.

Juilin Sandar is another character who's around a lot, does a lot, is a pretty popular supporting character, and yet he's kinda flat. Also no one can agree one what he looks like. He's described as being the color of teakwood, but again, considering the Mediterranean nature of Tear, I'm gonna go with Pierfrancesco Favino (left) because he has that look. He also is old enough without being too old, and looks like a nice guy who could also be a badass.

And now we come to Faile's parents, Lord Davram Bashere and his lady wife, Deira. Again, I don't think Saldaeans look Chinese, but you're free to disagree with me. Lord Bashere is shorter than his wife (apparently short men and taller women is a common thing in Saldaea), so that's really mainly what I had to go on. I picked Jonathan Ryan (right) for Lord Bashere and Isabelle Champeau (left) for Lady Deira, mainly because I know Ryan is short (at least he looked it on The Tudors) and Champeau is of average height. They also look believable as Eleanor Tomlinson's parents.

Patricia Hodge

David Calder

Kirsty Mitchell

Paul Wight

The next group of actors I selected for what I refer to as "the Caemlyn Club", as that's where we meet all of them for the first time and they later group together. To be honest, I think at least two of them will probably not feature heavily in the TV series (though I could be wrong). But the first of them, Lini Eltring, will probably be a fan favorite, because the character is a lot of fun. I chose Patricia Hodge to play her, again, based mostly on her look. I didn't want the actress to look too old, but she shouldn't look young, either. Innkeeper Basel Gill is more minor, but as he later ends up in Perrin's entourage, I figured I'd better cast him. I chose David Calder even though I'm not all that familiar with him. For his bodyguard, Lamgwin Dorn, I searched for a huge guy and finally came back to my initial choice of Paul Wight. A former wrestler (Big Show), Wight doesn't really do acting jobs that require much range or skill, but Lamgwin, let's face it, just requires him to be huge. You don't even have to give him much dialogue; it's not a dialogue-heavy part. I'll also include Breane Taborwin in this group, even though she's not from Caemlyn and isn't introduced with this group, but she does end up with them later, and even falls for Lamgwin, of all people. I picked Kirsty Mitchell for the part.

Daniel Ansleigh

Later in the books, when Mat re-forms the Band of the Red Hand, he gets two lieutenants that are pretty much always present around him; the Cairheinin Talmanes Delovinde and the Tairen Nalesean Aldiaya. They don't have much character; they're basically there to be the right and left hand for Mat, so I wonder if they'll even be given that much character in the series. Probably not much. So, I picked a couple of guys who match the look; Daniel Ansleigh for Talmanes and David Bark-Jones for Nalesean. I know what I said about Mediterranean looks, but I think Bark-Jones looks fine, plus his home country may not even be mentioned.

James Greene

David Bark-Jones

Juan Chioran

I went ahead and cast Herid Fel because even though he's only around for one book, he has an important role. James Greene (right) looks appropriate enough. This is another part where the looks aren't that important, as long as he can convey the right character, and he can.

Finally, based on the fact that Rodel Ituralde apparently becomes an important character in the last three books, I decided to cast him, despite the fact that in the books I've read he doesn't do much. Juan Chioran looks appropriate, but honestly I kinda blanked on this one.

Next Up: The Aiel!

The Aes Sedai and other Tar Valon Residents

To start off with, there are just so many Aes Sedai that it was nearly impossible to come up with even this many actors for all of them. I mean, holy crap are there a ton of Aes Sedai! So, I'll just come out with it and say that I've decided right now that the only ones who will be focused on regularly (aside from the ones listed under the "heroes" entry) will be Siuan, Leane, Elaida, Verin, Alanna, Liandrin, Sheriam, Alviarin, Galina and later Cadsuane. The reason is that each of them serve a real role in the series, rather than just being mentioned a lot. And even then, that list sounds long!

The rest of those that I've cast I suggest should be mostly featured extras with the odd episode here and there where they contribute to the plot. Some will be revealed as Black Ajah, but I decided they would each have their time in the sun, so that when they are exposed, it will actually come as a shock.

First up is Siuan Sanche. She is Tairean, which is like a mix between Greece and Spain, despite being described as having honey-blonde hair. She's also described as being tanned and tough-looking. I decided to go with an actress who looks like she could pass for Mediterranean and has played a legendary leader before: Lyndsey Marshall (left). Yes, I know she doesn't look "sturdy" like Suian, but I would rather focus on her heritage and the fact that Marshall has the "ageless" look, plus she's got talent. Also, when she and Leane are stilled, I would rather keep the same actresses in the roles.

Leane, Siuan's right-hand woman, is described as dark-skinned, but to be honest, other than the fact that she later changes Ajah's her character is kinda flat. She's just there to support Siuan. I wasn't sure who'd fit best, but she is a prominent character even if she is kinda flat, so I picked an actress from The Borgias; Emanuelle Chriqui (right).

Then there's Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan. Yeesh, that's a lotta names. She's one of the series' major villains who isn't actually a Darkfriend (that I know of; there's more proof that she's not than that she is) and one that viewers are gonna love to hate. Michelle Forbes (left) has that stern, haughty face and has played two amazing villains on Battlestar Galactica and True Blood in recent years. She'll make a great Elaida.

Verin Mathwin will be a very popular character, I can just tell. Viewers will have a fun time just trying to figure out what is up with her. Is she good? Bad? Annoying? Funny? I can just see her catch phrase "Interesting..." entering the public vernacular. However, she's not one of the more major characters; just a prominent supporting role, so I chose Lucy Cohu (right) to play her, based mostly on her look being very close to Verin's (plump but not fat, middle years but not elderly). She seems to have a well-traveled career so she must have some talent. I chose Gary Oliver (also right) to play her loyal, omnipresent Warder, Tomas.

Alanna Mosvani isn't a very rounded role; she's mainly there to be a temptation for Rand as she keeps wanting to bind him and he's having none of it. To be honest, I'm not sure how major a role she'll have on the show, but she's around for a majority of the major action scenes in the novels, so I'm gonna call her a prominent supporting character. I chose Emma Raine Walker (left) to play her, again based mostly on her look.

Sheriam Bayanar will actually be a fairly large role, as she is kind of a sympathetic antagonist for the main female characters, especially once she starts holding court in Salidar. Jemma Redgrave (right) is a recognizable actress who fits quite well into a large, but still recurring, role.

Liandrin is Black Ajah (not really a spoiler; it's one of the first things we know about her) and a haughty bitch with a pretty face and blonde hair. The first time I read the books I pictured her as Claire Kramer (from Buffy) but she'd be too old now, and I'd prefer someone who looks like they belong in a period piece, which Kramer doesn't. Annika Hammerton (left) looks enough like her, and is English, so she should fit pretty well.

Alviarin Friedhin, another Black Ajah and the most prominent one, as she becomes the true power in Tar Valon with Elaida as her puppet, is cold-eyed, cruel and beautiful in an evil way. There are a lot of people who swear she's blonde, but I can't find that anywhere in the text. Jo Marriott (right) looks good for this role.

Galina Casban is another early-revealed Black Ajah who spends a majority of her time a captive of the Aiel. She is generally described as "round-faced", while still beautiful. Sounds like Laurie Hagen (left) to me.

Finally, Cadsuane Melaidhrin more or less takes over for Moiraine as Rand's primary Aes Sedai counselor after Moiraine's disappearance. She is very old, even for an Aes Sedai, condescending and a character I think viewers will have a great time with. Initially I pictured her as Maggie Smith, but Smith is just too old (and too busy), but Samantha Bond (right) can pull this off no sweat.










I'm not doing a write-up for the others. Now we've reached "featured extra" territory, and while I felt the roles needed actresses in them, I don't feel like I should explain why I chose whom. Each of them I just tried to get as close as possible to the way the books describe them.

Jill Baker as Adeleas and Vandene Namelle

Sarah Smart as Andaya Forae

Sarah Beck Mather as Beonin Marinye

Sara Stewart as Carlinya

Anna Chancellor as Chesmal Emry

Michelle Bonnard as Faolain Orande

Elizabeth Healey as Katerine Alruddin

Patricia Routledge as Laras

Sophie Winkleman as Lelaine Akashi

Ayesha Dharker as Myrelle Berengari

Genevieve O'Reilly as Romanda Cassin

Claire Cooper as Seaine Herimon

Gina McKee as Anaiya

Melia Kreiling as Serafelle

Ania Sowinski as Takima

Meera Syal as Silviana Brehon

Abby Francis as Tarna Feir

Lucie Jones as Theodrin Dabei

Sinead Keenan as Pevara Tazanovni

Next up: Supporting Heroes!