Bringing Maiden handtalk from page to screen was no small task. Don’t miss the season finale of #TheWheelOfTime this week, only on Prime Video.

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ALT TEXT: We open on Marcus Rutherford as Perrin, Ayoola Smart as Aviendha, and Ragga Ragnars as Bain walking through the desert. We then see Maja Simonsen as Chiad using handtalk and we hear Naomi Joy Todd, dialect coach for The Wheel Of Time, saying, “We’ve got a made-up language in the show this season.” We then cut to a shot of Naomi talking on set, the words “Previously Recorded” in white text in the top right, as she continues, “the Aiel handtalk.” We cut to Aviendha and Bain as Aviendha uses handtalk to communicate. We then cut back to Naomi as she says, “We’ve brought on board a Deaf actor, and presenter, and comedian called Gavin Lilley.” We cut to a shot of Naomi and Gavin, as Gavin is speaking to a third person off camera, using sign language. Naomi continues, “Also we have an interpreter, Tim, when we went,” as we see another shot of Gavin and Tim speaking to each other using sign language, on set outdoors. We then cut back to Naomi on the indoor set as she continues, “let’s make a sign language.” We see Naomi on a desert set with Ragga, then we cut to Gavin Lilley signing, “The Aiel are very militaristic,” then we cut to a behind the scenes shot of Aviendha, Perrin, Bain, and Chiad as they walk through the desert in front of a camera and boom mic. Gavin continues, “through using spears, bows, shields…” We then cut to shots of Gavin, Tim, and Naomi with Ayoola, Ragga, and Maja as Gavin continues, “so the first thing we thought of is, ‘How do we teach them to use handtalk at the same time.’” We quickly cut back to Gavin, who signs, “when they’re in a militaristic - or a battle - militaristic situation.” We then cut to shots of Ayoola, Maja, and Ragga using handtalk on set as Gavin continues, “so they can still hold the weapons, still be on guard?” We then see shots of Gavin, Naomi, and Tim discussing then training the actresses on handtalk phrases out on the desert set as Gavin says, “So, we decided to focus more on signing with one hand. So, it’s a lot of practice, a lot of training.” We cut to an indoor rehearsal space, where the three actresses are practicing handtalk. Over these shots, Gavin continues, “Sign language is not word, word, word. It’s not a linear language, it’s a visual, spatial structure.” We then see Naomi training Ayoola on set, and a shot of Gavin talking with Maja on set, before cutting back to Gavin signing to camera, “And the actresses were wonderful, their job was amazing. They developed this very well, it’s beautiful.” We see a shot of Aviendha, Perrin, and Hopper walking Chiad and Bain before we cut to black. The logo for The Wheel of Time appears over black, with the words “Watch Now” underneath, which is all replaced by the Prime Video logo.

*me secretly taking notes so as to not reveal to the maidens that I’ve learned some handtalk* 😶‍🌫️

WoT out here doing dope shit again

🥹 love this so much.

I got stupidly excited when I saw sign language. Then I realized it wasn't exactly that. I got annoyed by that. But this explainer makes perfect sense! Even though it's made up, it still conveyed some sense of what's being said, plus it's conceivable that sign evolved.

Thank you for this BTS! Wow. This is so cool.

Love it, I've been with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time since 1984 when it originally came out. I own all 14 books including the ones Brandon Sanderson finished for them on their behalf. I'm Deaf in real life. 🤟

Amazing 🥺🥺 thank you sooo much for bringing this to life ❤️❤️

Kudos to WoT for their attention to detail. From handtalk, costumes, set designs, etc. just a job well done!