IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, we had Josh Heuston on the cover this month. And while the Sydney actor made his name in Heartbreak High and has been turning heads for his performance in Dune: Prophecy, more recently his name has been in headlines for a different reason. Hesuton is rumoured to be in contention for the role of Xaden Riorson in the Amazon adaptation of Fourth Wing, the first of five books in The Empyrean series.
The show is still in the early stages of development, but since the announcement of the adaptation, a number of potential casting choices have been the topic of fierce discussion online. Foremost among the actors to potentially play the primary love interest, Xaden Riorson, is Heuston. The series’ author, Rebecca Yarros, has already revealed to Variety that Riordan will be played by a person of colour, and Heuston himself has done plenty to stoke the flames.
For starters, Heuston’s Instagram bio features a dragon emoji, which, with no clear alternative explanation, seems like a fairly unsubtle hint. Heuston also follows author Rebecca Yarros on Instagram and has been spotted reading the third book in The Empyrean series, Onyx Storm.
Now, another hint that Heuston could be up for the role has come from our very own cover shoot with the actor. During Heuston’s Men’s Health Rapid Fire, he was asked for his personal motto. “Just wing it,” was his answer, followed by a cheeky smirk. For anyone else this would be a fairly innocuous response, but for an actor rumoured to be playing a major character in a series with ‘wing’ in the title? Suspicious.
Watch Heuston’s Rapid Fire below, and see what you think.
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What is Fourth Wing about?
Fourth Wing follows 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail, who is forced by her mother to give up a career as a scribe to instead become a dragon rider. To do so, Violet enters Basgiath War College, a notoriously brutal academy that trains potential riders with a ‘Graduate or Die’ method. In the books, Violet intitially seeks comfort in her old friend Dain Aetos when she arrives at Basgiath. But it’s the mysterious Xaden Riorson who soon captures her attention.
Who is making the Fourth Wing show?
Amazon MGM Studios has the rights to the first book in Rebecca Yarros’ series, but they haven’t obtained the rights to the full series,which features two other books, with two more on the way. Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society production company is set to produce the series with Moira Walley-Beckett (who produced Breaking Bad) tapped as showrunner.
When will the Fourth Wing show come out?
No release date has been set for the Fourth Wing series and it could still be a while away. Filming and production hasn’t begun, and the cast hasn’t even begun to take shape beyond a few rumours. This is pure speculation, but the earliest release date we can foresee is mid- to late-2026, but it could be even later than that.
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