Amazon has officially cast the first actor in its upcoming Wheel of Time TV series adaptation. IGN can confirm that Rosamund Pike has landed the role of Moiraine Damodred, the character who is being positioned as the lead in this telling of Robert Jordan's iconic fantasy series. Pike will also serve as a producer on the show.

Additionally, Amazon revealed that Brandon Sanderson, who wrote the final three novels in the Wheel of Time book series after Jordan's death in 2007, will serve as consulting producer on the series alongside Jordan's widow, Harriet McDougal.

Pike is a notable casting choice for the Amazon series, known best for her roles in Gone Girl, Jack Reacher, and Die Another Day. Her character, Moiraine Damodred, is one of the most respected magic users in the world of Wheel of Time, and plays a pivotal role in the story's central throughline to find the Dragon Reborn, a character who is fated to defeat the evil force known as the Dark One.

See Pike side-by-side with artist Dan dos Santos's depiction of Moiraine from the Fires of Heaven e-book cover below:

The Wheel of Time writers room Twitter account also posted a behind-the-scenes photo of Pike timed to the casting news:

Please welcome Rosamund Pike to the Wheel of Time family. Say hello to Moiraine. #WoTWednesday pic.twitter.com/577Hffwy6Y — Wheel of Time Writers' Room (@WoTWritersRoom) June 19, 2019

"The Wheel of Time is one of the most popular and enduring fantasy series of all-time, with over 90 million books sold. Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine, a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity."

Check out the official series description for Amazon's Wheel of Time below:

Click through all the Wheel of Time book covers below to get a sense of how the series has been depicted previously by artist Darrell K. Sweet:

This previously announced focus on Moiraine in Amazon's official series description is an interesting shift from Jordan's novels, which more often than not positions the young adult characters from Two Rivers as its main protagonists and point-of-view characters. In the books, Moiraine is a pivotal character but the story isn't often told from her perspective, though Jordan did release New Spring, a prequel to the first WoT novel The Eye of the World, which focused on Moiraine prior to the events of Wheel of Time.

This could end up being a smart point-of-entry shift for the Wheel of Time TV series. While the Two Rivers characters Moiraine meets -- specifically Rand al'Thor, Perrin Aybara, Matrim Cauthon and Egwene al'Vere -- are relatively ignorant to the world outside of their small, rural town of Emond's Field (in a manner similar to Frodo and Sam in Lord of the Rings), Moiraine offers a much better perspective into the fantasy elements and dangers of the larger world. In particular, opening the series with a clear focus on the magic and mysteries of the Aes Sedai throws the audience into the deep end of this series' world, especially as Moiraine tries to figure out who the Dragon Reborn may be.

Sanderson recently took to the r/WoT subreddit to offer some intel on the upcoming adaptation, and specifically addressed changes like the shift of having Moiraine serve as the central character (at least to start).

"I found the [vast] majority of these decisions to be excellent choices–things that will give the show its own soul, but still in line with the feel and tone of the books," Sanderson wrote on Reddit (via Tor.com), adding later, "I’d much rather get this, personally, than something like the first two Harry Potter films–which felt like someone trying to bring the books to the screen with exact scene-by-scene recreations. I’m certain there will be polarizing decisions made by the team, but the changes are coming from a good place, and I really like most of them."

Per a 2018 Twitter post from showrunner Rafe Judkins, the first episode of Wheel of Time (which he also wrote) is titled "Leavetaking."

Judkins (Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, Hemlock Grove) serves as showrunner and executive producer for the series, while Uta Briesewitz is slated to direct the first two episodes and also serve as executive producer. Other executive producers include Larry Mondragon and Rick Selvage of Red Eagle Entertainment, Ted Field and Mike Weber of Radar Pictures, Darren Lemke, and Marigo Kehoe.

Wheel of Time is slated to begin production in Prague in September 2019. For more on the series, here's everything you need to know about Wheel of Time. In addition to Wheel of Time, here are eight shows that could be the next Game of Thrones.

Terri Schwartz is Editor-in-Chief of Entertainment at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.