Prime Video Just Cast Its Fourth Wing Leads, and the Internet Is Already Divided Over Violet and Xaden

After years of waiting, Prime Video’s adaptation of Rebecca Yarros’s bestselling novel Fourth Wing finally has its two leads. On October 15, Deadline, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Esther McGregor will play Violet Sorrengail and Emilio Sakraya will play Xaden Riorson, the enemies turned lovers at the center of one of the most talked about romantasy series of the decade. Within hours, BookTok, Bookstagram and X were in full meltdown, and the reactions are anything but unanimous.

Amazon MGM Studios declined to comment on the casting when asked, so technically this is still a “reported” announcement. But when three major trade outlets all name the same two actors on the same day, history says the deal is essentially done. For a fandom that has spent two years fan casting this project on social media, that was enough to send the dragon riders of the internet into a frenzy.

Who Is Esther McGregor?

If the surname looks familiar, that is because Esther McGregor is the daughter of Star Wars and Trainspotting star Ewan McGregor. The 24 year old British actress is hardly a Hollywood unknown, though. She broke out earlier this year as Mirren in Prime Video’s adaptation of E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, which gave her a direct line to the streaming audience this project will depend on. Her credits also include Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl, Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door and the Disney Plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Violet Sorrengail is the kind of role that can define a young actor’s career. In Yarros’s Empyrean series, Violet is a 20 year old who has spent her whole life preparing to become a Scribe, a historian who records the past from the safety of the Archives. Then her mother, the commanding General Lilith Sorrengail, orders her to join Basgiath War College instead, where cadets train to bond with dragons and become the elite riders of the kingdom of Navarre. The college has one rule: graduate or die. Violet is small, fragile and stubborn, and the books hinge on the audience believing she can survive a world built to break her.

The internet has opinions. Many fans had their hearts set on Inde Navarrette, the actress who has built a devoted following through the film Obsession, and some took to X within minutes to say McGregor does not match their image of Violet. Others defended the choice, pointing out that hair and styling will transform her and that her We Were Liars performance proved she can carry exactly this kind of emotionally demanding role. One widely shared post argued that McGregor already has “the ‘I will survive Basgiath’ stare,” tattoos and all.

Who Is Emilio Sakraya?

The reaction to Emilio Sakraya has been warmer, even among the skeptics. The 30 year old German actor and singer is known for the 2022 film Rheingold, Netflix’s action thriller 60 Minutes and the series Warrior Nun and Those About to Die. He has also already filmed his next big franchise role, playing Koza in the third season of One Piece, so Prime Video is betting on an actor with a rising global profile.

Xaden Riorson is the series’ resident brooding heartthrob: a third year dragon rider and wingleader with shadow wielding powers, the son of a man who led a rebellion against the kingdom, and the one person Violet is warned to stay away from. Casting him was always the make or break decision for this fandom. Author Rebecca Yarros herself set the terms back in October 2024, saying her one casting requirement was that Xaden not be whitewashed, and that she hoped the production would find “an up and coming generation” of actors.

Sakraya, a German actor of Moroccan descent with genuine leading man presence, fits that brief neatly. “He looks like he stepped out of a fan edit,” one X user wrote. TikTok creator Harper Kaminski celebrated the news by revealing she had been vouching for him for two years. “Guys, we finally have Xaden!” she said. “People are going to be livid; I do not care.”

The Fan Casts That Almost Were

Part of the intensity comes from how long fans have waited. Amazon snapped up the rights to the Empyrean series back in October 2023, with Michael B. Jordan’s production company Outlier Society executive producing. The series was officially greenlit this May, with Locke and Key co-creator Meredith Averill joining as showrunner and executive producer, and Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy attached to direct the premiere episode. That is a heavyweight team for a genre adaptation.

In the vacuum, fans built their own dream casts. Off Campus star Josh Heuston was the most persistent fan favorite for Xaden, and he spent months dodging the rumors with a smile. Heuston’s name resurfaced immediately after the Sakraya announcement, with some fans admitting they were bummed their preferred pick did not land the role. For Violet, the Inde Navarrette contingent was vocal and organized. The lesson, as one TikTok creator put it, is to trust the vision: Amazon Prime Video rarely misses with its casting, and there is a long history of controversial picks winning fans over once the first trailer drops.

What Comes Next

There is still plenty the show has not revealed. No premiere date, no episode count, no additional casting announcements, and no official confirmation from Amazon itself. The show is still in pre-production, with filming yet to begin, so it will be a while before audiences actually see a dragon on screen. But the announcement of the two leads is the clearest sign yet that this project is moving from development into reality.

The Empyrean series is a genuine phenomenon. Fourth Wing became a word of mouth sensation when it published, and its sequels Iron Flame, Onyx Storm and the recently released Threshing Day have kept it on bestseller lists ever since. A planned five book saga, it follows Violet and Xaden from enemies to lovers while hundreds of cadets compete to bond with dragons in one of the most dangerous schools in fiction. Prime Video is clearly hoping it becomes its next big franchise, in the mold of The Boys or The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

For now, the debate will rage on in the comments. But one thing the whole fandom agrees on is that it is finally happening. Basgiath War College is opening its doors, and the dragons are ready. The only question left is whether the internet will ever calm down.

Further reading: Street Fighter Just Threw the Wildest Premiere of the Year, Ben Barnes Just Married His Secret Fiancee in a Dreamy Oregon Wedding, James McAvoy Just Revealed a Botched Lung Biopsy Nearly Killed Him

Sources: USA Today, Just Jared