The dragon riders have faces. Amazon confirmed on Wednesday 21 October that Esther McGregor will play Violet Sorrengail and Emilio Sakraya will play Xaden Riorson in its Fourth Wing series for Prime Video, ending a long guessing game among readers of Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean novels.
Who they are
McGregor was most recently in We Were Liars, and Sakraya starred in the German film Rhinegold, Amazon notes. In the books, Violet is a 20-year-old who is underestimated but sharp, pushed by her mother into Basgiath War College, where hundreds of candidates compete to become dragon riders for the kingdom of Navarre. Xaden is a fellow candidate with a complicated past who starts as her enemy and becomes her love interest.
Yarros, who executive produces, said she was “so grateful to our producing and casting team” for the search. Peter Friedlander, head of global television at Amazon MGM Studios, called the pair “rare and exceptional talents.” Lisa Joy, who will direct the pilot, described them as “brilliant, magnetic actors.”
The team behind it
Meredith Averill (The Haunting of Hill House, Locke & Key) is showrunner and executive producer. Joy, a co-founder of Kilter Films and an executive producer on Prime Video’s Fallout, directs the first episode, and Michael B. Jordan executive produces. Amazon also lists Jonathan Nolan and Athena Wickham for Kilter Films, Elizabeth Raposo for Jordan’s Outlier Society, and Liz Pelletier and Sherryl Clark of Premeditated Productions among the executive producers.
The series will stream exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories, according to Amazon.
What is still missing
Amazon has not announced the rest of the cast, a filming start or a premiere window, and says it will add a release date when details are available.
Where you have seen them
Esther McGregor’s credit in Amazon’s announcement is We Were Liars, the Prime Video adaptation of E. Lockhart’s novel that launched on 18 June 2025. She plays Mirren Sinclair Sheffield, one of the friends known as the Liars, who spend their summers on a private island off New England owned by the family patriarch. Amazon MGM Studios renewed the series for a second season in September 2025 and has not yet dated it. Season one is streaming on Prime Video, so it is the easiest place to see McGregor before Fourth Wing arrives.
Emilio Sakraya’s listed credit is Rhinegold, Fatih Akin’s 2022 German crime drama based on the life of the rapper Xatar. The film follows Giwar Hajabi from his arrival in Germany as a boy in the 1980s through petty crime and drug dealing to a gold heist meant to pay off a cartel. Its sales agent, The Match Factory, notes that Sakraya was named one of the Berlinale’s European Shooting Stars in 2022.
The rest of the producing bench
Amazon first announced the series at its 2026 Upfront presentation in New York in May, and its updated “what to know” page fills in the companies behind it. Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan and Athena Wickham are executive producers through Kilter Films, which Joy co-founded; Amazon also notes her executive producer credit on Prime Video’s Fallout. Michael B. Jordan and Elizabeth Raposo produce through Outlier Society, and Liz Pelletier and Sherryl Clark through Premeditated Productions.
Showrunner Meredith Averill’s two credits in Amazon’s materials are both Netflix series. The Haunting of Hill House is Mike Flanagan’s 10-episode 2018 ghost story about a family haunted by the house it fled, and Locke & Key ran for three seasons and follows three siblings who move to their late father’s estate and find keys that unlock powers and secrets. Both are still on Netflix.
Reading ahead
Fourth Wing is the first book in Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series. Amazon says the complete series is available in print, on Kindle and Audible, and through Kindle Unlimited. Yarros also has a new standalone novel coming: Peculiar Stars, a castaway romance, publishes on 17 November through Montlake, Amazon Publishing’s romance imprint.
The series joins a growing fantasy slate at Prime Video, which opens the third season of The Rings of Power on 11 November. For another book-to-screen franchise, see what Lionsgate has confirmed about Sunrise on the Reaping.
What it means for you
- Two leads confirmed: Esther McGregor (Violet) and Emilio Sakraya (Xaden).
- Prime Video · Global · no release date, no trailer, no further cast.
- The Fourth Wing novels are the place to start while you wait.
Sources
- About Amazon: Fourth Wing series cast: Esther McGregor as Violet, Emilio Sakraya as Xaden, 21 Oct 2026
- About Amazon: Fourth Wing TV series: What to know, updated 21 Oct 2026
- Amazon MGM Studios press: We Were Liars, accessed 23 Oct 2026
- Amazon MGM Studios: Amazon MGM Studios has renewed We Were Liars for a second season, 17 Sep 2025
- The Match Factory: Rhinegold, accessed 23 Oct 2026
- Netflix: The Haunting of Hill House title page, accessed 23 Oct 2026
- Netflix: Locke & Key title page, accessed 23 Oct 2026
Before you go
