Prime Video’s Fourth Wing has found the two cadets at its center. Esther McGregor will star as Violet Sorrengail and Emilio Sakraya as Xaden Riorson in the series adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling novel, according to reports from Deadline, Variety and TheWrap. Amazon declined to comment on the casting.
Fourth Wing opens the Empyrean series, Yarros’ planned five-book saga. It follows Violet Sorrengail, a 20-year-old who has prepared for a quiet life recording history in the Scribe Quadrant, until her mother, commanding general Lilith Sorrengail, orders her to Basgiath War College instead. There, hundreds of cadets compete to bond with dragons and become the elite riders of the kingdom of Navarre, under one rule: graduate or die. Xaden Riorson is the wingleader she is warned to stay away from, a cadet with shadow-wielding powers whose father led a rebellion against the kingdom, and the books build the two from enemies into the series’ central romance.
McGregor, the daughter of Ewan McGregor, broke out as Mirren in Prime Video’s We Were Liars, and her credits also include Babygirl, The Room Next Door and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Sakraya is a German actor and singer known for Rhinegold, Warrior Nun and Those About to Die, and he has already filmed his next franchise role, playing Koza in the third season of One Piece.
Yarros has weighed in on the Xaden question before. In a 2024 fan Q&A, she said her one casting requirement was that the character not be whitewashed, and that she hoped the series would find an up-and-coming generation of actors.
Amazon bought the rights to the Empyrean books in 2023 and ordered Fourth Wing to series this past May. Meredith Averill, a co-creator of Locke & Key, is the showrunner, and Lisa Joy, a co-creator of Westworld, will direct the first episode. Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society is among the production companies, and Yarros serves as an executive producer. The third book, Onyx Storm, reportedly sold 2.7 million copies in its first week last year, and no premiere date has been announced for the series.