Rafe Judkins Signs Overall Deal With Paramount Television Studios
Rafe Judkins, the showrunner behind Amazon Prime Video's The Wheel of Time, has signed an overall deal with Paramount Television Studios, according to Variety. Under the agreement, Judkins will create, develop and produce original scripted series for the studio.
An overall deal means a writer or producer agrees to work exclusively with one studio rather than shopping projects around to multiple buyers. For Judkins, it marks a new chapter after three seasons of The Wheel of Time, the epic fantasy drama based on Robert Jordan's book series, which starred Rosamund Pike and ran on Prime Video from 2021 to 2025.
Matt Thunell, president of Paramount Television Studios, pursued Judkins for the deal alongside his team. "I have long been a fan of Rafe's extraordinary writing and producing and am grateful he chose Paramount as his new creative home," Thunell said in a statement reported by Deadline. "We are amazed by his ability to build immersive worlds, craft action-packed stories, and realize vibrant characters."
The move reunites Judkins with Chris Parnell, who now leads genre development for Paramount+ under head of originals Jane Wiseman. When Parnell was co-president of Sony Pictures Television, he developed The Wheel of Time and called Judkins "a brilliant visionary" in the 2018 announcement of the series order. Judkins previously held an overall deal at Sony TV, where he also developed an earlier version of the game-based fantasy drama God of War for Prime Video before exiting that project as showrunner in October 2024. Ronald D. Moore subsequently took over God of War as showrunner (Variety, 22 October 2024).
Judkins most recently created The Red Tent, based on Anita Diamant's best-selling novel, which is in development at Netflix. His film credits include the screenplay for Uncharted, the Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg adventure that was the top-grossing non-sequel film of 2022, and a rewrite on the upcoming Amazon feature Foreign Relations, starring Glen Powell. He began his television writing career on the NBC drama My Own Worst Enemy, starring Christian Slater, before going on to work on Chuck for NBC and Agents of SHIELD for ABC.
The deal is the latest in a string of talent agreements Paramount Television Studios has struck since it relaunched following the Skydance-Paramount merger. Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer were the first to sign overall deals with the relaunched studio, covering film, TV and direct-to-consumer projects. The studio's roster also includes Yellowjackets creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, Liz Tigelaar, Issa Rae, Jon M. Chu, and Jessica Biel's Iron Ocean production banner, which holds a joint deal with CBS Studios.
Judkins is represented by CAA, Kaplan Perrone, and Hansen Jacobsen Teller.
