Every episode of the first season of The Kingkiller Chronicle TV series has been written, showrunner John Rogers (Leverage) tweeted Thursday. But he says there's still a lot of work to be done on the show, comparing it to an instrument or piece of music.
"This is the day I put the season finale pages down and back out to the outline and track the emotional payoffs of the season-long themes LONGHAND," Rogers said in a short thread about his revision process.
This is the day I put the season finale pages down and back out to the outline and track the emotional payoffs of the season-long themes LONGHAND. It’s as if I need the physicality of the pen to break the “typing” mindset of plotting and dialogue and scenework.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) May 23, 2019
25 years in you’d think this would be easier, or standardized. But it’s a pain in the ass every time.
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) May 23, 2019
It’s also, weirdly, one of my favorite moments in the whole season.
A first draft of an entire season of The Kingkiller Chronicle has been completed. Rogers describes his next steps as "hopping up and down the scale as dialogue reveals a character moment and then I pop high to see how to bring it in tune to what we're doing emotionally."
He even reveals what pen he'll be using for revisions: "Pilot Metropolitan today with the Uniball Signo black-infused red BLX for accents."
While Rogers never specifies that it's The Kingkiller Chronicle season finale he's just finished, his subsequent tweet responses make it a reasonable inductive conclusion. "In other words: your medieval fantasy emotional payoff will actually be… good?" a responder asked.
"First of all it's not medieval," Rogers responded, without disputing the "fantasy" descriptor. We're talking Temerant, people.
While The Kingkiller Chronicle TV series is making headway, we still know very little about it. It's not a direct adaptation of The Name of the Wind or The Wise Man's Fear, the two books so far released in author Patrick Rothfuss' Chronicle. Instead, the TV series is a prequel, following the family of Chronicle protagonist Kvothe, who was born into a troupe of traveling entertainers, known as the Edema Ruh.
In addition to executive producing, Lin-Manuel Miranda is composing music for the series and has already written a song for the premiere episode.
Lay of Sir Savien has me sh*tting my pants. Not ready yet. Already have sketches for Lady Lackless and Chandrian rhyming tune, did those for fun from the book. https://t.co/AauBnvtP5J
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) July 30, 2018
Rothfuss has consulted with Rogers and his writers' room, but has his own projects in the works, including Book 3 of the Chronicle, The Doors of Stone.
The Kingkiller Chronicle TV series was first announced in 2015, but it wasn't until 2018 that we began to see descriptions of the writing process. In October, Rogers mentioned the series pilot, describing, oddly enough, "a GIANT hat tip to A KNIGHT'S TALE in the Kingkiller pilot."
While the completion of a first draft of the full season is indicative of major progress, there's likely a long way to go before The Kingkiller Chronicle prequel series premieres on Showtime.
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