As we first reported on SFFGazette.com, Prime Video has finally found its lead stars for Amazon's long-awaited live-action adaptation of Fourth Wing. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Rebecca Yarros, Meredith Averill (Locke & Key) serves as showrunner.
Deadline has confirmed that Fourth Wing will be led by Esther McGregor (Babygirl, Clean Hands) as Violet Sorrengail, and Emilio Sakraya (Those About To Die, Warrior Nun) as Xaden Riorson.
The book follows twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail, who was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general, also known as her tough-as-talons mother, has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.
But when you're smaller than everyone else, and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away, because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them.
With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter, like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.
Amazon MGM Studios acquired the rights to the full Empyrean book series in 2023 (the trilogy includes Iron Flame and Onyx Storm), but Fourth Wing wasn't officially greenlit until this past May. Averill has been attached as showrunner since September 2025, while Lisa Joy (Westworld) will direct the series premiere.
The plan is to adapt all the books over multiple seasons. Yarros has plans for fourth and fifth books, and recently released a companion novel, Threshing Day, with thirteen short stories that further flesh out the world she's created.
The series comes from Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society, Jonathan Nolan and Joy’s Kilter Films and Premeditated Productions. Jordan and Elizabeth Raposo executive produce via Outlier Society; Nolan, Joy, and Athena Wickham via Kilter Films; Liz Pelletier and Sherryl Clark via Premeditated Productions.
With its two leads now in place, the next challenge will be bringing Yarros' hugely popular fantasy world to life on screen. The casting of McGregor and Sakraya should give fans an early idea of how Prime Video plans to approach Violet and Xaden's relationship, while the promise of multiple seasons suggests there will be plenty of room to explore the books' sprawling mythology, dangerous dragon-riding trials, and political intrigue.
You can check out our recent interview with McGregor in the player below.