The Wheel of Time season 3 is the closest book adaptation so far – with sharp focus on one key character

"We get to put up some of my favourite scenes from the book. Some of them are huge, like Rand declaring himself Car'a'carn in the Aiel Waste, and some of them are small.

"There's this really intimate little scene with Mat (Dónal Finn) and Suian (Sophie Okonedo) where he has to turn over the Horn of Valere to her. That's just beautiful in the books. So we get to do some things big and some things small that are really from the books this season, and follow the story lines pretty closely.

"And a lot of that's because of the building blocks we've put through season 1 and season 2 – this is the section of the books where they became explosively popular. I think the readership doubled, tripled through [books] 4, 5 and 6, and these are the books we're starting to adapt.

"A lot of what we've done leading up to this is putting pieces in place so that we can tell the stories of these books the most effectively, and so it's fun because we kind of get to just run with it now and then really tell those stories and follow those characters."

Fans have previously worried about their favourite characters, most prominently Rand and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford), getting their time to shine – but, according to Judkins, the focus being elsewhere was for good reason and they don't have to be concerned this season as Rand heads to the Aiel Waste.

"We don't necessarily have the time to give all of our characters full focus each season, and so we'll pick three or four of them that their arc is really the front-most arc of the season," he explained.

"Rand is certainly one of the characters that is very forefront this season, and we really are close to him. We're understanding how this man is starting to step into his own power when it's been something that he's been quite afraid of and he's not really ever wanted it before.

"This is the first season we see Rand want power, and it really brings out some surprising aspects of his character and personality that we haven't seen before. And I think what's quite interesting about that is that some of the characters wonder if that's madness creeping in, or is this just this man and who he is and what he really wants, and now he's out challenging who he thought he might have been, and are these just things that he's really coming to find are pieces of his personality?

"I think that question of, 'Is it madness, or is it Rand?' is really interesting. It's something that plays very heavily in the books, and it's something we get to see a lot of this season as you come to know Rand much more completely than we have before."

He added: "The thing is that so many people who love the books love different things about them. One of the reassurances I would give is that – there are some people who read the books and the only thing they love about it is Rand and his story in them, and there are some people who really love the Perrin story.

"I think, for those people who have felt under-serviced in previous seasons, I can assure them that this season we've always been planning to, and you really get to see these great characters serviced.

"I love Rand and Perrin just as much as they do and and this is the right time to really see those characters shine."

The Wheel of Time season 3 will begin on 13th March on Prime Video.

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