Editor's note: The below interview contains spoilers for the first three episodes of The Wheel of Time Season 2.
When we last left off with The Wheel of Time, the culminating battle at the Eye of the World fractured our leading group of characters in more ways than one. Not only is this tight-knit band now scattered in vastly different directions, but they've been forever impacted by the fight against the Dark One's right hand (Fares Fares) — chief among them the Aes Sedai Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), who was viciously cut off from the One Power and thereby unable to reach for the source of her abilities. Rand (Josha Stradowski), who has now learned his true destiny as the Dragon Reborn, found himself touching the madness that men who can channel the One Power often experience — and as a result, decided to flee instead of reuniting with his friends, asking Moiraine to let everyone else believe he has died.
In the wake of last season's finale, Season 2 picks up with Rand living in the Foregate in relative anonymity. At the same time, Moiraine has adopted a different, more personal mission while reckoning with the break in her bond to her Warder, Lan (Daniel Henney). After demonstrating an impressive level of power at the Battle of Fal Dara, Egwene (Madeleine Madden) and Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) are now in Tar Valon training to be Aes Sedai, and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) has undertaken the search for the missing Horn of Valere, currently in the custody of the Darkfriend Padan Fain (Johann Myers). Mat (Dónal Finn), however, may be in the last place anyone would expect to find him — locked in the White Tower under the watchful eye of Liandrin (Kate Fleetwood).
Ahead of the Season 2 premiere and the ongoing WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike, Collider had the opportunity to sit down with The Wheel of Time's cast, including Henney, to discuss the biggest moments of the opening episodes. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, the actor behind Lan discusses how his character is coping in the aftermath of Season 1, why Lan's split from Moiraine might actually be good for both of them (but mostly Lan), how Season 2 touches more on the intricacies of Warder culture, and more.
COLLIDER: What to you was the biggest difference between filming Season 1 and then filming Season 2?
DANIEL HENNEY: Without getting too into it, the first season of the show is always a strange entity. It lives by itself. You're trying to get your traction, trying to figure it out, “Who are we? How is this show gonna work?” You're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna learn a lot, and ultimately, Season 1 was really good. It was well received. But it's always sort of a jumping-off point for any show. When I watched Season 2, when we screened them all — the pacing, the tone, the rhythm, even the look and the color and the feel and scale, it felt much more like what we want the show to look like moving forward. It's trending in that way for Season 3. Trust me, it's even darker for Season 3.
To me, it felt very different. We had COVID, which shut us down three or four times, but despite that, we were still able to come up with what I feel is a complete season for the actors, too. With Season 1, it got to the point where we didn't know what was happening with the scripts because certain things needed to be changed. It's really beneficial to have your scripts and to know where your character is going; it's so important as actors. So that was very helpful because you could play emotion that you knew was coming in Episode 7, but you needed to work with in Episode 2 because you're gonna get there, and that was really important for us.
To your point, it's definitely darker. For Lan, we pick up with him in a place where, off the back of the finale in Season 1, we know that the bond between him and Moiraine has been blocked. How is he doing at that point? What is his emotional state? How is he coping with that?
HENNEY: I love getting new scripts in, but this show is one of those things where when I get them, I have to step outside and mentally prepare myself. If I get it here at home, I'll walk out to my porch and just take a breath because I never know what I'm gonna have to do – I could be screaming at a funeral, I could be slicing up two Fades, I could be crying, I could be naked in a hot tub.
So I think he's doing all right now, in Season 3, but at that time… it's just like anything. They're very much like a married couple. You left them at the Eye of the World at the end of Season 1 with the whole Ishamael thing, and then the bonding and the state that it's in. Then you pick them up right away in Season 2, and they're in this weird place where they're not really speaking. He doesn't know what she's doing, and she's being all secretive, and there are these visitors. He overreacts. I can speak for men, we tend to... when our partners are being quiet, you're like, “They've been altered. What's going on with you? Talk to me.” And if they don't, we do this thing, and I think that's all it is. It's very simple, and he's just trying to find a way in.
It's a painful choice that she makes, but do you feel like there's a part of it that is actually a good decision for the two of them? As difficult as it is to have that schism, it might actually benefit both of them in the long run?
HENNEY: Yeah, I do, 100%. They need time apart. Especially for him – I think it's more for him. I've thought about this a lot, and for Lan, Season 2 is a very formative season for him. He needed time alone, and then he goes and spends some time with some other people and with some other cultures, and he changes. He's different. You'll see him physically different, you'll see him mentally different, and it helps him to get back on the road to where he needs to be. Just like anything, you need to go through some stuff to build calluses.
He really seems to be taking the time to process not only his relationship with Moiraine but also reshape his perspective on what the bond between an Aes Sedai and a Warder should be. How do you think that's going to shape his approach to, say, a potential new bond moving forward?
HENNEY: In Episode 4, with Ihvon, there's a meditation scene and things like that. They're long, they're slow, but those moments to him are very important. That's what I love about our show — they've included the Warder culture a bit, so you can understand how they operate, how they work. So, that conversation with Ihvon, I don't think anyone's ever talked to him that way. Even when Tomas, in the beginning of Episode 2, says, “Maybe you need to shut up and just listen,” these moments for him are huge. Moving forward, just like real life, when you have these moments, you can approach a true next. Bonding again is like a new relationship, to be honest. It's a fresh start. All I can say is that he will approach it with fresh eyes and a fresh mind, and he will be a better person and a better partner.
I feel like I can't let this conversation pass by without asking about Lan and Nynaeve. What can you tease about what we'll see from them in Season 2?
HENNEY: Well, we love that relationship. Without taking too many liberties, we're gonna try to find ways to get a little bit of those two in. In Episode 3, you see them when Zoë's character is going through quite a bit, and she's amazing in that episode. Any time I get to do a little Lan and Nynaeve work, it’s such a breath of fresh air because we're always just laying in a bed or something, which is nice, I'm not on horseback or fighting Fades. But we just have a really nice back and forth, a very natural connection. All I can say is we're gonna find ways to get them in there. Episode 3 is a big one, and Season 3 as well. I know they're not together much, but [for] Season 3, I just finished doing some stuff with Zoë, which I think everyone's gonna love quite a bit.
After the Eye of the World, we see the main group fracture. Everyone goes off to their own respective spheres, but I feel like it's a good way to see your character, to see Rosamund's character bounce off some new faces. What were you excited about most in terms of getting to play off of different or newer cast members in Season 2?
HENNEY: What's interesting is that when you work with different actors at different ages, it's different energy. I really enjoyed the relationship with Stepin in Season 1. I thought it gave perspective on the Warder culture, what they meant to each other, what the hierarchy is, and how they interact. I have some really great scenes with Tomas in Episode 1, just some conversation stuff with Ihvan and Maksim. I love all that stuff because it gives so much perspective, and just having that energy of someone who is similar in age to Lan, I enjoy that very much. Because a lot of the people he interacts with are younger than him in the show, the male characters, and it's nice to see him kind of go toe-to-toe with someone that's close to him age-wise.
New episodes of The Wheel of Time Season 2 premiere Friday on Prime Video.