Fourth Wing Reportedly Casts Esther McGregor and Emilio Sakraya as Violet and Xaden

Prime Video’s Fourth Wing has reportedly found its two leads. Esther McGregor will play Violet Sorrengail and Emilio Sakraya will play Xaden Riorson in the series adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’ romantasy bestseller, according to Deadline, with Variety reporting the same names. Both outlets cite sources close to production. Amazon declined to comment to both, so for now this is reported casting rather than an announcement.

Who they are

McGregor is already in the Prime Video family. She led the streamer’s adaptation of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars and, per Deadline, is currently shooting its Life Is Strange series. On film she appeared in Babygirl and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, and she had a role in Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. She is the daughter of Ewan McGregor; the two starred together, with her sister Clara, in 2023’s Bleeding Love.

Sakraya is a German actor whose U.S.-facing credits include Netflix’s Warrior Nun and Tribes of Europa, Peacock’s Those About to Die, and the action film Sixty Minutes. He has a recurring role as the rebel leader Koza in the upcoming third season of Netflix’s One Piece. Deadline notes he was a top fan choice for Xaden before the report, which tracks with the reaction we are seeing in the comments under the trades’ posts: a lot of relief, some disappointment, and plenty of people who had someone else in mind.

What the series is

For anyone who has not been handed a copy by a friend yet: Violet Sorrengail is a 20-year-old who expected a quiet life as a Scribe until her mother, a general, orders her into Basgiath War College to become a dragon rider. The college’s rule is “graduate or die.” Xaden Riorson is the brooding, shadow-wielding cadet from a rebel bloodline she is supposed to stay away from. The books are enemies-to-lovers with dragons, and they have sold accordingly.

Amazon MGM Studios acquired the Empyrean series for TV in 2023 and ordered the show in May. Meredith Averill (Anne With an E) is showrunner and executive producer, and Lisa Joy is set to direct the series premiere. Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society, Jonathan Nolan and Joy’s Kilter Films, and Premeditated Productions produce. Per Deadline, the plan is to adapt the rest of the novels over multiple seasons if the first lands.

The Empyrean series currently runs three novels, Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023) and Onyx Storm (2025), plus the September short-story collection Threshing Day. A fourth and fifth book are planned.

What’s not known

No production start, no release window, and no official word from Amazon. We will update this story if the studio confirms the casting or announces the rest of the cadre.

Reporting by Deadline and Variety. Image: Emilio Sakraya at the Berlinale, 2023, by Martin Kraft (CC BY-SA 4.0); Fourth Wing cover art courtesy Red Tower Books / Entangled Publishing.