What’s Occurring With the ‘Fourth Wing’ TV Present? See Updates
If you’ve been refreshing your BookTok feed, scrolling Bookstagram fan edits, or debating fancasts in your group chat since October 2023, you already know: the Empyrean series is headed to the screen. But the journey from page to Prime Video has been anything but straightforward — and there’s a lot to unpack about where the adaptation stands right now.
Here’s every confirmed detail, every juicy casting rumor, and every key quote worth bookmarking.
Prime Video Secured the Rights — and Michael B. Jordan Is Producing
It became official in October 2023 when Prime Video announced it would be adapting Rebecca Yarros’s entire Empyrean book series into a TV series. The project is being developed with actor Michael B. Jordan’s production company, Outlier Society.
As of now, it’s unclear when the Fourth Wing show will premiere. Prime Video has not shared many updates on the show’s development. The Empyrean books themselves are still being published, with the most recent third book titled Onyx Storm releasing in January 2025.
That said, Jordan himself offered a reassuring update in a January 2026 interview with Deadline, and his words should settle at least some nerves in the fandom.
“We are making sure that this is going to be an exciting show that delivers on all of the things the fans want and some of the things that they won’t be expecting either,” he said. “But trust me, I know how beloved this franchise IP is, and we’re diligently…We’re in the lab, we’re cooking up. We got it. It’s coming. It’s early stages, but I feel how much people care about this one. It’s not lost on us.”
The Showrunner Shakeup: What Happened and Why It Matters
Here’s one of the biggest behind-the-scenes developments fans need to know about. The show experienced a shakeup in July when the original showrunner, Moira Walley-Beckett, left the production. That’s the kind of news that can send a fandom spiraling, but the follow-up was promising.
Deadline reported in late September 2025 that Amazon MGM Studios had found her replacement — Meredith Averill. The TV producer is best known for executive producing Wednesday season 2 and The Haunting of Hill House.
For readers invested in the tone and emotional depth of Yarros’s books, Averill’s résumé is noteworthy. Her track record suggests experience with genre storytelling that blends dark atmospherics with compelling character dynamics — exactly the kind of balance the Empyrean series demands.
The Casting Conversation: Who Will Play Violet and Xaden?
Now for the part everyone really wants to talk about.
Prime Video has yet to announce any cast members for the upcoming series. No one is officially attached to any role. But that hasn’t stopped the fandom from building extensive fancast lists — and the speculation around who will play 20-year-old heroine Violet Sorrengail and her love interest, Xaden Riorson, has been relentless.
One detail the author herself has confirmed: Xaden will be played by a person of color. Speaking to Variety in November 2023, Yarros was deliberate about why she held back on sharing a detailed physical description during the height of fan speculation.
“We’re just going to say he’s POC; we’re just going to leave it at that. I didn’t rise to the bait of a lot of those [fan] posts, which I think probably got me some flak, but I knew we were already in development for TV, and I want to make sure that role is open to as much diversity as possible. So I was never going to give the readers my vision because I know that once you give the readers your vision, that’s what they’re gonna stick to. And I wanted to make sure we left it open to as much diversity as possible.”
The Names Circulating in Fan Speculation
So who’s on the shortlist in fandom circles? A few names keep rising to the top.
Australian star Josh Heuston is often mentioned to play either Xaden or Bodhi, his younger cousin. Heuston was asked about the fan speculation on a red carpet by Bravo Australia, and when asked if they could call him Xaden, he responded, “You have to ask the scribes, I suppose.”
That’s a playful non-denial if there ever was one — and it’s the kind of response that keeps the fandom buzzing.
Beyond Heuston, Emilio Sakraya is often listed as a Xaden fancast, and Mackenzie Foy is often mentioned for Violet.
To be clear: none of these names have been confirmed by Prime Video or the production team. These are fan-driven conversations. But in a fandom this engaged, the speculation itself becomes part of the experience — and it’s worth tracking as official announcements inch closer.
If you aren’t yet all too familiar with Violet Sorrengail and her angry-and-ripped love interest Xaden, here’s the core setup for what’s at stake in the TV show: In the book, there are dragons, and those dragons meet their riders at an elite school known as Basgiath War College. There, small Violet eschews what she thought would be a quiet life as a scribe for a chance to spar alongside other riders and bond with not one but two dragons. She also meets the traitorous Xaden Riorson, a wingleader already bonded to the dragon Sgaeyl, as he helps train Violet for dragonback, and for the war threatening their homeland of Navarre.