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!