Violet and Xaden have faces. Here is what we know.
The Fourth Wing TV show finally has faces. On October 15, Deadline reported that Esther McGregor will play Violet Sorrengail and Emilio Sakraya will play Xaden Riorson in Prime Video's adaptation of Rebecca Yarros's Fourth Wing. Amazon declined to comment, so there is no official announcement yet. But Variety and The Hollywood Reporter ran the same story that day, and trades don't usually guess on a lead casting.
I have been waiting for this since 2023, when Amazon bought the rights and then went quiet for what felt like a geological age. So here is what we actually know about the series: who is in it, who is making it, when it might land, and the question I get most, which is whether this is a movie. (It isn't.)
It's a TV series. People search for the Fourth Wing movie constantly, and I get why, but a film was never in the works. Amazon MGM Studios picked up the rights to the whole Empyrean series in 2023 and developed it as television for Prime Video. In May 2026, at Amazon's upfront presentation in New York, Prime Video gave it a full series order.
TV is the right call. Fourth Wing is over 500 pages of training, challenges, war games, and a romance that takes its time. A two-hour film would have to squash the Gauntlet into a montage, and nobody wants that.
Violet Sorrengail was meant to become a scribe until her commanding general mother orders her to enter the dragon rider academy. She must survive deadly competition and paranormal creatures while uncovering dangerous secrets. As her world expands, so does her capacity for power and love.
Esther McGregor is reportedly playing Violet. You might know her from Prime Video's We Were Liars, and she had parts in Babygirl and Pedro Almodóvar's The Room Next Door. She is also Ewan McGregor's daughter, which the internet worked out in about four seconds. She is filming Prime Video's Life Is Strange series right now, so Amazon clearly likes working with her.
Emilio Sakraya is reportedly Xaden. He is a 30-year-old German actor and singer with Warrior Nun, Tribes of Europa, and Peacock's Those About to Die behind him, and he plays Koza in the third season of Netflix's One Piece. He was one of the names BookTok kept pushing for Xaden, so for once the fan-casters and the studio seem to agree.
That matters because Yarros has been firm about Xaden. She told Variety in 2023 that he is a person of color, and in 2024 she said she was staunchly against whitewashing the character. Fans watched this casting closely for exactly that reason.
The other names going around were Josh Heuston for Xaden and Inde Navarrette for Violet. Neither is attached. No one else has been cast yet either. No Dain, no Rhiannon, no Liam, no General Sorrengail. If you have strong feelings about who voices Tairn, you are waiting with me.
Meredith Averill is the showrunner and is writing the adaptation. She co-ran Locke & Key and worked on The Haunting of Hill House, so she knows dread and grief. Fourth Wing needs both, especially in the early chapters at Basgiath.
Lisa Joy, co-creator of Westworld, directs the first episode. Her company Kilter Films, which she runs with Jonathan Nolan and Athena Wickham, is producing. So is Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society with Elizabeth Raposo. Liz Pelletier and Sherryl Clark of Premeditated Productions are on board too, and Pelletier runs Entangled Publishing, the house behind Fourth Wing. Yarros is an executive producer herself.
That is a heavy team. You don't hire a Westworld director for the pilot unless you plan to spend real money on the dragons.
There isn't one. Amazon has not announced a premiere date, a release year, or even when filming starts. If someone tells you the show is coming out in 2026, they are wrong.
My guess, and it is only a guess: leads cast in October 2026 usually means cameras roll in 2027. A dragon show leans hard on visual effects, which can add a long stretch of post-production. Late 2027 would be optimistic. 2028 feels safer. I'll update this page the moment Prime Video gives a date.
Amazon's official premise is the start of the first book. Violet's mother, the commanding general, pushes her into Basgiath War College, where she competes against hundreds of other candidates to become a dragon rider. Amazon bought the whole series, not only the first book, so they are planning for more than one season.
I would bet season one covers Fourth Wing alone, from the parapet to that ending. That is plenty of story, and rushing the build between Violet and Xaden would be a mistake. If you want a refresher before the trailers start, our Fourth Wing summary walks through the plot.
Violet Sorrengail was meant to become a scribe until her commanding general mother orders her to enter the dragon rider academy. She must survive deadly competition and paranormal creatures while uncovering dangerous secrets. As her world expands, so does her capacity for power and love.
There are three novels so far: Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm. On September 29, Yarros released Threshing Day, a collection of thirteen stories about riders and their dragons. It is not book four. The series is planned as five novels.
Book four has no title or date yet. At her Denver tour stop, Yarros said she knows the title, and that every story in Threshing Day hides something about what comes next. So if you are rereading before the show, read that one slowly. Our full Empyrean reading order has every book in sequence.
Violet Sorrengail was meant to become a scribe until her commanding general mother orders her to enter the dragon rider academy. She must survive deadly competition and paranormal creatures while uncovering dangerous secrets. As her world expands, so does her capacity for power and love.
Violet's world has been turned upside down. With her dragon by her side and new allies at her back, she must uncover the truth about the war that's coming. The stakes have never been higher.
The third book in the Empyrean series hits hard. Dragons, found family, enemies-to-lovers, and enough plot twists to break your heart.
The surprise Empyrean release: thirteen interconnected stories built around a single legendary Threshing Day at Basgiath, the day cadets and dragons choose each other. Not book four, but a return to the world of Fourth Wing ahead of it, arriving between the quadrant's deadliest traditions and the fandom's loudest theories.
Casting news doesn't make the wait shorter, so here are three to fill it. When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker if you want more dragons and a heroine with a lot of rage. The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent if the deadly competition was your favorite part. Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole if you like your romantasy on its way to a screen, since it has its own Hulu series in development.
For a longer list, our guide to books like Fourth Wing has plenty more, and the dragons trope page has every book on the shelf with a dragon in it.
Speck discovers a mythical world where dragons hatch from the lunar sky, and she finds herself caught between protectors and hunters. The warrior who finds her is complex and dangerous, but he teaches her that power comes in many forms. As dragons emerge and the stakes rise, she must choose which world she truly belongs to.
A paranormal romance where danger and supernatural passion collide in a world of ancient magic and forbidden connection. Two souls bound by fate and danger discover their bond might be their only salvation. Love here means accepting the darkness within and without.
Enemies transform into lovers as they move through political fantasy and revolution across a world on fire. Each is bound to a side of an escalating conflict that threatens to consume everything. Slow-burn passion ignites as they discover their power is strongest together.
Our spice guide explains exactly what each heat level means.
Read the Spice Guide
Every Empyrean book in order, what to expect from each, and what comes next.
Dragons. Danger. Romance. More of all three.
Everything that happens at Basgiath, in one place. Spoilers fenced off until you say so.
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Published October 2026 by The Fae Shelf editorial team. Updated regularly with new releases and community feedback.
