Fourth Wing Casts Esther McGregor and Emilio Sakraya as Leads
Prime Video's Fourth Wing has found its Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson.
Esther McGregor will play Violet and Emilio Sakraya will play Xaden in the TV adaptation of Rebecca Yarros' bestselling novel, according to reports published on 15 October. Deadline reported the pair's casting citing sources close to production, with Amazon declining to comment. Variety separately said it had learned of Sakraya's casting, and that Amazon also declined its request for comment.
That caution matters. The names are reported, not yet confirmed by the streamer. Still, this is the first word on who will lead the series.
McGregor will take on Violet, the young woman at the centre of Yarros' story. Sakraya will star opposite her as Xaden, the wing leader she is thrown together with. For readers new to the books, the Empyrean series is a fantasy romance built around dragon riders at war.
Sakraya is a German actor whose credits include Rhinegold, Tribes of Europa, Warrior Nun and Those About to Die, according to Variety. He is also set to appear in Season 3 of One Piece. The casting lands with book fans. A fan poll cited by Woman's World in May named Sakraya as the No. 1 dream pick to play Xaden.
Behind the camera, Meredith Averill serves as showrunner, meaning the writer in day-to-day charge of the series, and executive producer, a senior creative and business role. She joined the project in September 2025.
The series was officially greenlit, meaning ordered to production, by Prime Video in May. Lisa Joy will direct the premiere episode and serve as executive producer. The show comes from Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's Kilter Films, and Premeditated Productions.
Amazon MGM Studios acquired TV development rights to the Empyrean book series in 2023. That was before the full scale of the books' success was clear.
Yarros plans five books in the main series. The first three are Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023) and Onyx Storm (2025). She has also released Threshing Day, a novella with 13 stories set in the same universe. Titles and release dates for books four and five have yet to be announced.
For fans, this means the adaptation is moving from deals and development into something visible. Two faces. A production team. A premiere director. No release date yet, but a series that now looks like television.
