‘Fourth Wing’ TV Series Casts Emilio Sakraya as Xaden Riorson

Attention, “Fourth Wing” cadets: Amazon Prime Video’s TV adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling romantasy series has found your wing leader.

Emilio Sakraya has been cast in the role of Xaden Riorson, Variety has learned. He will star opposite Esther McGregor (“We Were Liars”) as Violet Sorrengail on the Prime Video TV series. Amazon declined comment.

Sakraya has a hefty list of credits in both TV and film from his native Germany as well as in the U.S.; his credits include “Rhinegold,” “Tribes of Europa” and “Warrior Nun.” His other recent projects include “Those About to Die,” and he’s set to appear in Season 3 of “One Piece.”

“Fourth Wing” is set inside the brutal world of Basgiath War College, where there is only one rule: graduate or die. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was always expected to live a quiet life — but she’s sent on an entirely different path when her mother, a general in the military, orders her to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become dragon riders, the elite of Navarre.

Starting with the release of New York Times bestseller “Fourth Wing” in May 2023, Yarros’ “The Empyrean” book series currently includes sequels “Iron Flame” (November 2023) and “Onyx Storm” (January 2025.) This September, Yarros released the novella “Threshing Day,” which tells 13 stories set in the “The Empyrean” universe. The titles and release dates for the planned fourth and fifth books have yet to be announced.

Ordered to series at Amazon in May, “Fourth Wing” is produced by Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society and Amazon MGM Studios. Meredith Averill (“Anne With an E”) is showrunner and executive producer alongside Yarros, Jordan, Outlier president Elizabeth Raposo, Jonathan Nolan and Athena Wickham of Kilter Films. “Westworld” co-creator Lisa Joy is also an executive producer and will direct the first episode of “Fourth Wing.”

Liz Pelletier and Sherryl Clark are executive producing for Premeditated Productions, the sister company to “Fourth Wing” publisher Entangled Publishing. Outlier Society executive vice president of TV, Stefano Agosto, will co-executive produce.