Wheel of Time Full Trailer is out *No Spoilers Please*

[Zardnaar]

Give it a shot. Looks alright.

 

[TheSword]

Sorry, but I have no familiarity with the source material (I think I struggled through a chapter or two of the first novel a couple of decades ago), and the trailer just presents a load of generic faces and places without giving me any real clue as to who's important, who's the main character, whether anyone's likeable, or what the plot is about. Oh, except the villain's called "The Dark One", which is about the most generic fantasy villain name ever.

I’m not sure exactly you expect from a teaser trailer? Full synopsis and a character sketch of each of the leads? The villain is called Shai’tan but that’s neither here nor there.

 

[MarkB]

I’m not sure exactly you expect from a teaser trailer? Full synopsis and a character sketch of each of the leads? The villain is called Shai’tan but that’s neither here nor there.

I don't expect much, and I'm optimistic for the series to be potentially worth watching. But you asked whether the trailer would capture the interest of someone not familiar with the novels - and for me the answer is no, it didn't capture my interest.

 

[Parmandur]

Nope. Just looks like loads and loads of characters in the Realms of Generica.

Well, it is a bunch of characters, but it is far from generic.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting that they're really down-selling the role of Rand, Mat, and Perrin, at this point, and are instead emphasizing Egwene as a sort of "chosen one".

Looks specactular. Can't for wait for it

Well, all 6 Edmond Fielders are super important, and they seem to not want to give too much away here to folks who aren't established fans of the books to maintain the effect of the core revelations of the first book.

Tons of little details from the first two books in here, fairly astonishing how much they packed into two minutes.

 

[Parmandur]

Sorry, but I have no familiarity with the source material (I think I struggled through a chapter or two of the first novel a couple of decades ago), and the trailer just presents a load of generic faces and places without giving me any real clue as to who's important, who's the main character, whether anyone's likeable, or what the plot is about. Oh, except the villain's called "The Dark One", which is about the most generic fantasy villain name ever.

Well, admittedly "The Dark One" is literally Satan-Who-is-the-Devil, but by going full hog it actually transcends normal Heroic Fantasy bad guy sterotypes and is ultimately much weirder.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't expect much, and I'm optimistic for the series to be potentially worth watching. But you asked whether the trailer would capture the interest of someone not familiar with the novels - and for me the answer is no, it didn't capture my interest.

I can say that this is definitely a trailer for the fans...because never having seen most of these actors I knew who most of them were from the books precisely, and what was happening in the flash scenes and why. I'll bet there are more trailers latter for people who haven't read the books, but readers of the novels are not an inconsiderable audience to start with.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Sorry, but I have no familiarity with the source material (I think I struggled through a chapter or two of the first novel a couple of decades ago), and the trailer just presents a load of generic faces and places without giving me any real clue as to who's important, who's the main character, whether anyone's likeable, or what the plot is about. Oh, except the villain's called "The Dark One", which is about the most generic fantasy villain name ever.

I’m just at a loss as to what in the trailer is “generic”. I mean...the characters are human and there is magic? That's....about it.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Well, whatever else it may be, I will predict that it will be better than the previous television adaptation of Wheel of Time.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I can say that this is definitely a trailer for the fans...because never having seen most of these actors I knew who most of them were from the books precisely, and what was happening in the flash scenes and why. I'll bet there are more trailers latter for people who haven't read the books, but readers of the novels are not an inconsiderable audience to start with.

To be fair, I had trouble tracking who a lot of the characters were without help. My wife had to point out that Egwene is the girl in the river and in the half naked scene, and I've no idea who the old guy in the "no matter what happens, the wheel keeps turning" bit was.

But yeah, its very much a "build hype by inviting fans to dig into the trailer shot by shot to find all the details" trailer. Still, diverse cast, a mysterious council of female mages that protect the world, a city consumed by living shadow, a monster with a mouth for a face, etc. Not exactly bringing any other fantasy property I can think of in recent years to mind.