Warning: SPOILERS for The Wheel of Time Season 3

The Wheel of Time season 3 finale cemented Rand al’Thor as the Car’a’carn, setting up huge things to come for the future. As a whole, the season marked an incredible journey for Rand, who began the eight-episode run laughing with his friends at a tavern and closed it out grappling with his role in the death of an innocent girl and refusing to let go of the tainted One Power that is slowly driving him mad. He's also the most powerful he's ever been, with clans of warriors united behind his back–and the most alone, having lost two of his loves.

It’s safe to say the season has put Rand and Josha Stradowski, the actor behind him, through their paces. Stradowski spent The Wheel of Time season 3 episode 4 wearing the faces of five of his ancestors, and in episode six had to portray the Dragon Reborn trying with all his might to revive a girl he accidentally killed. In addition, throughout the season, Rand has had some of his most fateful and emotional interactions yet interactions with other characters including Moiraine, Egwene, and Lanfear.

ScreenRant interviewed Josha Stadowski about his work playing Rand al’Thor in the Wheel of Time season 3. Stradowski revealed the depth of his intention when it comes to playing Rand, how he believes he and The Wheel of Time have found their footing over the course of three seasons, and what Rand’s exponential increase in power and status means to him and the world around him. Stradowski also revealed what he wants to do and see if The Wheel of Time season 4 were to happen.

Rand's Wheel Of Time Season 3 Ending Explained By Josha Stradowski

"He Is The Force"

The last moments of The Wheel of Time season 3 feature Rand full to bursting with the One Power, complete with the spinning blackness of the Dark One’s poisonous touch. It’s slowly driving him mad, but he’s wielding it confidently. The buildup to that moment, though, was a seasons-long journey for Josha Stradowski. “Last season, [channeling] was a mistake, or something happened [and] it spilled out of him,” the actor said. “This season, I wanted the channeling for Rand to feel really aligned. I wanted it to be less forceful. I wanted it to be like he is the force.”

Stradowski, who has read Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time saga, knew that he “wanted to get to a place where it feels so incredibly aligned with all of Robert Jordan’s beautiful descriptions of how the channeling feels.” This is seen–and discussed–earlier in the season, with Rand explaining to Moiraine the thrill and the danger of holding the male half of the One Power.

In the finale, though, it’s Egwene, not Moiraine, who begs Rand to let go. He doesn’t–at least not before the show cuts to black. In Stradowski’s words:

“What do you do when you feel the most aligned you’ve ever felt in your life and then someone says to you, ‘Stop’?”

The season 3 finale is the advent of a new level of consequence for Rand. “In The Wheel of Time books,” Stradowski said, “after a while, you turn the page, you see the name Rand, and [you know] the whole story is going to change. That’s of course, [also] because of all the other characters, but mostly [it’s] because he decides that something is going to happen in a particular way. [The end of the finale episode], for me, was that moment.”

“If he does not let go,” Stradowski continued, “what is Egwene going to do? It just creates more problems. But I think that’s a very interesting place.”

Josha Stradowski Addresses A Potential Season 4 For The Wheel Of Time

"We Finally Found Our Form"

The Wheel of Time season 3 ends in an interesting place indeed–and even more of one considering that nobody seems to know if the series will be renewed. “I know nothing,” Stradowski said, “I wish I did. I feel like we finally found our form, and I think it would be a shame to throw that away.”

“I must be honest as well – it took a while to get to this place,” Stradowski itted, (to be fair, The Wheel of Time has had to fight against mid-season cast departures, Covid guidelines, and an eight-episode series order that has made giving every character their due a true challenge) “but we finally got here. Now, I already know what we could do if we could even take it further, and that really excites me. But honestly, I don’t know [about season 4.] I really don’t.”

When asked about whether Callandor, the incredibly powerful sword sa’angreal Rand famously wields in the books, Stradowski said, “if there is another [season], I’m sure that’s going to be in there.”

Stradowski also teased how Rand’s madness could evolve over the course of more seasons, especially on the journey to the moment book readers will know as The Battle of Dumai’s Wells: “A couple of other seasons will be very interesting, because if you go into the box, in of madness, that would really be a big shift.”

Rand & Moiraine's Relationship At The End Of Wheel Of Time Season 3 Explained

"This Might Be The Last Time I Will Ever See You"

The relationship between Rand and Moiraine (played by Rosamund Pike) also goes through intense ups and downs in The Wheel of Time season 3, culminating in a finale dialogue that marked a paradigm shift in their relationship. In the scene, Rand essentially states that although he knows Moiraine has been manipulating him for as long as they’ve known each other, she has done so with one very straightforward goal in mind. “There’s always games and tricks,” Stradowski said, “Now, they’ve arrived at this place, and there’s no games and tricks anymore.”

In that finale episode conversation, Stradowski said, “They have only one flag of honesty: ‘I care about you and I see you. I see what you’ve done for me, and I’m grateful, and thank you … This might be the last time I will ever see you, so I want to share that with you.’”

It was a moment that arguably features series-best performances from both Josha Stradowski and Rosamund Pike. “I rarely walk off set with the feeling, ‘Wow, I’ve done such an amazing job. I’ve nailed it,’” Stradowski revealed, “But that day, I was like, ‘Wow, that was really good.’ And then we went around and we were shooting [Rosamund’s] coverage, and I was so blown away. I haven’t seen the episode, so I don’t know how it turned out, but [based on] what I felt that day, it was [some] of the best acting I’ve ever witnessed in my life.”

“After that scene,” Stradowski said, “I thanked Rosamund–for that, and also [for] the last couple of years, because it was one of the last scenes that we shot together.”

Egwene & Lanfear's Relationships With Rand Addressed By Josha Stradowski

The Wheel Of Time Season 3 Ends With Rand On His Own

By the middle of the finale episode, Rand’s romantic relationships with both Egwene and Lanfear have been completely severed, leaving him surrounded by allies, but no real loved ones. For the first time on screen, Rand is, in that sense at least, truly alone–and it changes him. “I think now the personal stuff is out of the way,” Stradowski said, “With Egwene, he knew that was coming. [And] there was a really narrow path, possibly, with Lanfear, but that went away. So it feels like he is, in a way, on his own, and it really made him more radical.”

“It’s also time,” Stradowski continued, “drama put aside, for, ‘I'm the Dragon Reborn, and I'm going to save you.’ That is why he went through the lives of his ancestors, and that's what gives him his purpose. With the breakup of Lanfear and Egwene, he is a man on a mission, and I feel like nothing can get in his way now.”

The Wheel Of Time Season 3 Changed Josha Stradowski's Approach To Rand Forever

It Also Changed His Approach To Acting

Whatever happens with the series, it’s a safe bet that The Wheel of Time season 3 episode 4 will remain one of the show’s best. It was also the biggest test Stradowski had faced to that point, with the actor playing Rand as well as a number of the Dragon Reborn’s ancestors. “That episode was profound in so many different ways,” Stradowski said.

“It changed how I see Rand. It changed how I see The Wheel of Time. It changed how I look at acting. It really changed everything.”

“I was looking at how the ancestors were similar to Rand, but I also wanted them to be very different,” Stradowski reflected, “and that made me look at how I portrayed Rand before episode four.” The actor was ready to take a big swing, he said, sharing that “that episode was really necessary in all kinds of ways for me as an actor … this was really a challenge, and it demanded something else of me.”

Ultimately, Stradowski said, “The most profound thing [about] that episode was that now I can see the potential of The Wheel of Time. I already had a vision about it, but now I can see it even more.”

One Early Version Of An Episode 6 Scene Saw The Extent Of Rand’s Madness

Stradowski Reveals A Totally Different Take On Alsera’s Death

One of the most powerful sequences in the whole season takes place in episode 6 when Rand unleashes his power to defeat the Forsaken Sammael seemingly without trying. In the process, he kills his young Aiel friend Alsera, and unleashes his full might in an attempt to bring her back to life.. As impactful as his futile attempt was in the show, Stradowski revealed a completely different take on it that would have been even more intense.

“This season, the schedule was really, really tight,” Stradowski said, “and that day, we were shooting three scenes. Two of them were ancestors with prosthetics, so it was quite hectic. I arrived on set and Marta [Cunningham], the director, asked me for the full range of madness of Rand, and a kind that we’d never seen before. [There was some] on the page, but most of it was just breathing and channeling.”

“So,” Stradowski continued, “I basically went off script.” The actor only had three attempts, he revealed, and he used his own understanding of Rand’s mind to make the most of them. “The madness comes out in different ways,” Stradowski shared, saying, “the madness comes out because of the taint of the Dark One, [and] it comes up because we see what happens if you take something away from him that he loves, or that he cares about.”

Stradowski revealed that he had one specific and “horrifying” image in his head, of Rand cradling Alsera’s dead body as he talks to the people around him. “That’s basically what I did,” the actor said. “Rhuarc was there, Moiraine was there, Egwene was there–all the actors were there–and I was crying to one person, laughing to the other, angry to the other, and then desperate to [another] person, while this body was dead in [my] arms.” But that’s not all, Stradowski revealed: “Then, the body was going up–we had this whole cable setup–and he just doesn’t stop channeling.”

Unfortunately, the production ran out of time for the day, and when they returned days later to get the scene, Stradowski was told they were on a seriously tight schedule. “We only have two hours,” the actor was told, “I had to stay in one place. The body wasn’t going to go up. There was one frame, and that was it.” Still, the actor put his own stamp on the scene: “‘What does the prophecy say?’ was the only thing that came up to me–’I bring destruction, but I also bring creation.’”

Even though the original version of the scene didn’t make it to the final episode, it gave Stradowski plenty of inspiration when it comes to Rand’s future: “The madness that I felt with the Alsera improvising scene–[that’s] where we can take it if there is another season. And we can go even further. When I look into the books, there’s a scene in book two or three where Rand is sitting in a cave … people come, and he kills them all. There are so many scenes that are so good, and so scary, and so interesting.”

“We’ve drawn the lines now, and now we can kind of go crazy with the story and really push it far. The material demands it from us, in a way.”

Check out our other The Wheel of Time season 3 interviews:

• Kae Alexander
• Shohreh Aghdashloo & Kate Fleetwood
• Taylor Napier & Priyanka Bose (Episode 7 breakdown)
• Marcus Rutherford & Isabella Bucceri (Episode 7 breakdown)
• Zoë Robins (Episode 6 breakdown)
• Madeline Madden (Episode 5 breakdown)
• Rafe Judkins (Episode 4 breakdown)
• Thomas Napper (Episodes 3 & 4 breakdown)
• Ayoola Smart, Daniel Henney, Ceara Coveney & Sophie Okonedo
• Callum Kerr & Luke Fetherston
• Josha Stradowski & Rosamund Pike
• Rafe Judkins & Natasha O'Keeffe
• Marcus Rutherford & Dónal Finn

The Wheel of Time season 3 is streaming in full now on Prime Video.