Wheel of Time Casting: Alanna Mosvani, Ihvon, Maksim

Author: Atarah al'Norahn
Published: December 25 2019 Tar Valon Times Blog Link

This article contains spoilers through Lord of Chaos.

In the few days since Rafe Judkins’s December 18, 2019 announcement that #WoTWednesday has been disbanded so that information can be released at a more accelerated pace, we’ve not only received a behind-the-scenes photo of Josha Stradowski, Madeleine Madden, and several members of the make-up crew—we’ve also received three more castings. On December 23, 2019, Deadline announced that Priyanka Bose will play Alanna Mosvani while Taylor Napier and Emmanuel Imani will play her Warders, Maksim and Ihvon. The information has since been confirmed by Amazon and Rafe. According to Deadline, all three “are set to recur” in the series.

Since Alanna doesn’t appear until The Great Hunt, and then only briefly as part of Siuan’s delegation to and from Fal Dara, this triple casting raises numerous questions. Here are a few preliminary thoughts on the casting.

• While we meet both Alanna and Ihvon in The Wheel of Time book series, we never do properly meet her second Warder, who is killed by Whitecloaks before Perrin, Faile, and company reach the Two Rivers. Additionally, Maksim has either been renamed or is a new character entirely, as Alanna’s second Warder is named Owein in the books.
  

• Will Alanna, Ihvon, and Maksim appear only briefly in the first season and recur later in the series—or will their roles be significantly expanded? Given Alanna’s forced bonding of Rand in Lord of Chaos, is her role potentially being increased in the early series to pave the way for this plot point—an event akin to rape that plays a huge part in making Rand distrust Aes Sedai even more than he did from the start?
  

• Given how Deadline describes the relationship between Alanna, Ihvon, and Maksim—that “The three of them have a complicated relationship built on love, sex and respect that welds them into a fearsome force in battle”—will their relationship be portrayed as polyamorous? Rafe has already stated, in regards to Rand’s relationship with Elayne, Aviendha, and Min, that he is much more interested in polyamory than polygamy.”
  

What are your thoughts on this new casting information?

Official #WoTWednesdays might be over, but we’ll still be featuring content on the upcoming television show most Wednesdays.