The Fourth Wing Show Has Its Leads & BookTok Called One Of Them

Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing was an instant hit when it was published in 2023, so Amazon MGM Studios announcing a TV series in development that same year wasn't much of a surprise. The project landed a full series order at Prime Video this past May, and fans have wondered who would make up the Fourth Wing cast, particularly who would play Violet and Xaden, the rival dragon riders at the story's center.

They got their answer on Oct. 15. Esther McGregor and Emilio Sakraya will play Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson in the upcoming series, Deadline reported, citing sources close to the production. Meredith Averill, who co-created Netflix’s Locke & Key and wrote on The Haunting of Hill House, serves as showrunner, and Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy is set to direct the pilot, per Variety.

McGregor, Ewan McGregor's daughter, recently starred in Prime Video’s adaptation of We Were Liars, and Sakraya in Those About to Die and Warrior Nun. If the latter name sounds familiar, that’s because Sakraya has been one of BookTok’s favorite Xaden fancasts for months.

As of writing, Prime Video hasn’t officially confirmed the casting; Amazon declined to comment to Variety. But Michael B. Jordan, who executive produces the series through his production company Outlier Society, has made clear the team knows what’s at stake.

“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 told Deadline earlier this year. “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 Oscar winner also said the team wanted to avoid “cheesy” or “obvious” choices in bringing the book to the screen, a philosophy that extends to casting, where fans can expect a mix of newer actors and established names, he told the BBC. The hope is that viewers will “fall in love with the characters that they have imagined in their head without any baggage” rather than “projecting their own feelings on certain casts,” Jordan said.

Of course, readers know Violet and Xaden’s enemies-to-lovers arc in Fourth Wing is only the beginning. The novel kicks off Yarros’ Empyrean series, which continues with Iron Flame and Onyx Storm, with a fourth and fifth book still to come, plus Threshing Day, a companion collection of short stories released last month. Deadline noted that the books that follow Fourth Wing could serve as source material for future seasons.