Prime Video's Fourth Wing has reportedly found the two faces its enormous fandom has been waiting to see. Esther McGregor is set to play Violet Sorrengail and Emilio Sakraya is set to play Xaden Riorson in the series adaptation of Rebecca Yarros' bestselling Empyrean novels.
Deadline reports the casting through sources close to the production, noting that Amazon declined to comment. If the report holds, the two actors would take on one of the most scrutinized pairings in modern fantasy: Violet and Xaden, enemies-turned-lovers at the heart of Yarros' story, in a casting process fans have been fantasy-casting since the adaptation was first announced.
The series is set at Basgiath War College, where 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail — bound for a quiet life as a Scribe, like her father — is instead forced by her mother, General Lilith Sorrengail, to join the brutal training of the dragon riders, the elite of Navarre. The college's single rule is "graduate or die": cadets who fail to bond a dragon rarely survive, and riders without their dragons are as good as dead. There Violet crosses paths with Xaden Riorson, a brooding cadet descended from a rebellious sect, who wields shadows — and toward whom she feels a pull she cannot afford.
McGregor, the daughter of Ewan McGregor, arrives with Prime Video history already: she appeared in the streamer's We Were Liars, the adaptation of E. Lockhart's novel, and is currently filming the streamer's Life Is Strange series. Her film credits include Babygirl and Pedro Almodóvar's The Room Next Door, and she also appeared in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Sakraya, meanwhile, was reportedly a top fan choice for Xaden long before this news. The German actor headlined the MMA feature Sixty Minutes and the Peacock gladiator series Those About to Die, with earlier roles in Netflix's Tribes of Europa and Warrior Nun. He has also completed work on the third season of Netflix's One Piece, where he recurs as Koza, leader of the rebel army.
Behind the camera, Meredith Averill serves as showrunner and executive producer. Michael B. Jordan and Elizabeth Raposo executive produce through Outlier Society, alongside Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy and Athena Wickham of Kilter Films, and Liz Pelletier and Sherryl Clark of Premeditated Productions. Lisa Joy is also set to direct the series premiere.
Amazon MGM Studios acquired the Empyrean rights in 2023 and officially greenlit the series in May 2026, with plans to adapt the novels across multiple seasons if the first succeeds. Yarros has published three books so far — Fourth Wing and Iron Flame in 2023 and Onyx Storm in 2025 — with a fourth underway and a fifth planned. No filming or premiere date has been announced, and Amazon has not confirmed the casting.
