- ‘Save The Wheel of Time’ fan campaign is about to hit some key milestones
- Organizers are planning to fly a plane and banner over Sony Pictures’ head offices
- The Prime Video show was canceled after three seasons in late May
Fan pressure is continuing to amount on Amazon and Sony Pictures after The Wheel of Time was axed in late May.
Before the high fantasy show was canceled after three seasons, its devoted fanbase had called on the series’ production studios to not only renew The Wheel of Time for a fourth season, but also ensure its full story was told. Those calls came hot on the heels of The Wheel of Time‘s cast telling me they were “confident” over its season 4 renewal. Unfortunately for all involved, the Amazon TV Original was canned soon after.
The Prime Video show’s loyal audience has refused to throw in the towel, though. In the weeks since its cancelation, a ‘Save The Wheel of Time’ fan campaign was organized after viewers decided to channel their frustration into something more positive. That being, unrelenting fan pressure to force a U-turn over the show’s premature end.
The campaign’s first three weeks have been productive, too. At the time of publication, an online petition has been signed by over 174, 600 people. Almost $33,000 has been raised via the campaign’s GoFundMe page as well – donations that have allowed organizers to purchase a billboard in Times Square, New York in early June to promote the fan-led movement.
Things aren’t stopping there, either. Over the next few days (June 18 to 20), digital and static billboards in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Sao Paulo will display messages from the fan-led initiative. A plane will fly a SaveWoT banner over the head offices of Sony Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios in Culver City, California between 12pm and 2:30pm PT tomorrow (Tuesday, June 17), too.
In a statement accompanying the campaign’s latest press release, a spokesperson said: “We’re truly blown away by the global legion of fans that donated to our fundraiser! Because of their generosity, we can take our message to the next level with billboards and a flyover. We believe our continued pressure on Sony Pictures will turn into positive action to find the show a new home.”
Opinion: a valiant effort, but will it conjure up the U-turn that Wheel of Time fans crave?
There’s no denying that The Wheel of Time‘s legion of fans are doing everything they can to convince studio executives that it was scrapped before its time.
Few other fan campaigns have been this persistent in their quest to achieve their goal. In fact, there are only two that immediately spring to mind. The first is the online campaign that led to the eventual release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, aka the director’s original cut of his final superhero movie, on Max in mid-2022. The other is the forthcoming continuation of Warrior Nun‘s story – albeit by a Warrior Nun film trilogy that hasn’t arrived yet – following the Netflix show’s cancelation after two seasons in August 2023. There’s a precedent, then, for long-running fan campaigns to achieve their objectives.
The problem that ‘Save The Wheel of Time’ faces, though, is two-fold: one, will organizers have the patience, resources, and energy to maintain this level of concerted pressure? And, two, will Amazon and Sony actually listen?
If one of the best Prime Video shows is to come back from the dead, it’ll need the answers to both of these questions to be a resounding “yes”. Otherwise, the series’ third season, which, as I noted in my The Wheel of Time season 3 review, is the series’ best entry by far, will mark the end of the road for this magical fan campaign.
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tom.power@futurenet.com (Tom Power)
