Wheel of Time is such a big production that Amazon gave up on finding the appropriate studio space to make it, and instead built a gigantic studio complex in Prague, named after the original book's author, Robert Jordan.
As reported by GQ, producer David Brown explains that traditional studio space in Los Angeles, Atlanta, London, Budapest and Prague was already booked up when they began looking. “The show is hugely ambitious creatively," Brown continues. "So how do we fill that? That's why we're in this building that is 350,000 square feet.”
Instead of continuing to look around, Amazon created Jordan Studios in Prague, buying industrial buildings that were previously used by a trucking company. The studios include a visual effects unit, stunt gym, costume department, writing offices, accounting department and, "football-field-size soundstages", among other things.
That control over the space seems to have allowed Amazon to essentially take greater risks with its creations. The report includes the detail of how the production saw an entire town, Two Rivers built for the production, and subsequently burned down for another scene.
The scale of the production is all in aid of creating a show to rival TV's most prestigious shows, particularly Game of Thrones. Reportedly, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wanted his own Game of Thrones for Amazon, with executive producer Mike Weber adding that audience expectation is for a show like this to look like the latter seasons of Game of Thrones, which were significantly more expensive per episode as time went on. Some estimates have put Wheel of Time at around $10 million per episode.
We'll see the fruits of that labour when the show premieres on November 19, with three episodes launching at once. We've not seen much so far, but a first clip showed off Two Rivers and the entrance of Roasamund Pike's Moiraine.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].