Fourth Wing Casts Esther McGregor and Emilio Sakraya for Prime Video Series
Esther McGregor will play Violet Sorrengail, and Emilio Sakraya will play Xaden Riorson, in Prime Video's television adaptation of Fourth Wing. Variety reported on 21 October that Prime Video and the book's author, Rebecca Yarros, have confirmed the casting.
The news had already been trade-press talk for about a week. Deadline reported the pairing the week before the official confirmation. On Thursday 16 October, Prime Video made Sakraya's role public.
The two leads are the central pair in Yarros's Empyrean series, a fantasy story about young riders who bond with dragons and train at a military college. Violet and Xaden are the two main characters. The first three Empyrean books are Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023) and Onyx Storm (2025). Yarros is writing the fourth novel, and a fifth will follow. She has also released Threshing Day, a companion collection of 13 short stories told from the points of view of dragon riders.
Amazon MGM Studios acquired the television development rights to the series in 2023. It gave the project the official go-ahead in May 2026, meaning the show is now in production rather than in development. The series is made by Amazon MGM Studios and Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society, with Kilter Films, the company run by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and Premeditated Productions. It will stream only on Prime Video.
Meredith Averill joined in September 2025 as showrunner and executive producer, the person who runs the writers' room and oversees the series from script to screen. Lisa Joy is set to direct the premiere episode and also works as an executive producer. Deadline reports that the plan is to adapt the rest of the novels over several seasons, provided the show succeeds.
Peter Friedlander, Head of Global Television at Amazon MGM Studios, described McGregor and Sakraya in the official announcement as rare and exceptional talents.
No premiere date has been announced so far. For now, the next step is the work itself: scripts, sets and a cast that will spend months on a story that has already filled five years of readers' shelves.
