Prime Video has reportedly locked in its leads for the television adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’s blockbuster fantasy novel Fourth Wing.
Esther McGregor, 22, and Emilio Sakraya, 28, have been cast as Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson, respectively, according to a Deadline report cited by multiple outlets. McGregor, daughter of Ewan McGregor, has built credits across Prime Video’s We Were Liars and the films Babygirl and The Room Next Door. Sakraya recently wrapped series three of Netflix’s One Piece and appeared in Peacock’s Those About to Die and Netflix’s Warrior Nun.
The casting arrives nearly two years after Amazon MGM acquired television rights to Yarros’s novel in October 2023. The book follows Violet, who intended to pursue a quiet life as a historian like her father, Asher, before her military mother, General Lilith Sorrengail, forces her into Basgiath War College. The institution brutalizes its students as they compete to become dragon riders in the nation of Navarre.
Violet’s survival hinges on bonding with her dragon rather than recording history from the safety of the Archives. She encounters Xaden, a shadow-wielding cadet tied to one of Navarre’s rebellious factions, while confronting the college’s stark mandate: graduate or die.
Lisa Joy directs the series premiere and serves as executive producer alongside showrunner Meredith Averill, who took that post in September 2025. The creative team faces the task of launching what could become a multi-series franchise. Yarros has released three of five planned novels: Fourth Wing and Iron Flame both arrived in 2023, with Onyx Storm following in 2025. The fourth installment remains in development.
Last month, Yarros expanded the universe with Threshing Day, a companion volume of thirteen short stories written from various dragon riders’ perspectives about bonding with their mounts. Whether this material will surface in the television adaptation remains unconfirmed.
McGregor’s recent workload has clustered heavily around streaming adaptations. She is currently shooting a Prime Video series based on the video game Life Is Strange. Her earlier Disney+ credit includes Obi-Wan Kenobi, and she appeared alongside her father and sister Clara McGregor in the film Bleeding Love.
Sakraya’s trajectory has moved through European and American genre productions. Beyond his Netflix and Peacock credits, he has appeared in the German-language features 60 Minutes and Tribes of Europa.
The Fourth Wing adaptation enters production as fantasy series dominate streaming slates, though few have attempted to translate the specific combination of military academy brutality and dragon-riding spectacle that propelled Yarros’s novel to bestseller status. The reported casting of relatively fresh faces in McGregor and Sakraya suggests a bet on chemistry over established marquee names.
Yarros’s original novel spent multiple weeks atop bestseller lists after its 2023 release, driven by word-of-mouth among BookTok communities and crossover appeal to readers of Sarah J. Maas and Jennifer L. Armentrout. The television version will test whether that momentum transfers to a visual medium where dragon effects budgets and romantic tension carry equal weight.
The production has not yet announced additional casting or a projected release window. Multiple outlets noted that Amazon MGM is positioning the project as a potential flagship fantasy franchise if the first season performs.