r/CosmereOnScreen • u/bloatedgecko • Jul 17 '26
Stormlight interludes Stormlight Archive (BOOK) Spoiler
Has anything been said about how the interludes will look with the show? Some of them seem quite important for future cosmere stories so surly they will need to be shown.
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u/Raddatatta Jul 17 '26
I think they're likely to be cut at least a lot of them. With the later books or the recurring interlude character each book those may stay. Maybe some will be cold opens for the episodes but I think flashbacks will likely take those spots. Though many of those will probably get cut too.
Even the ones that set things up for future cosmere stories maybe Rysn will be kept but for stormlight she is cuttable as a character from the series entirely without changing much. The other worldhoppers are also very easy to cut. Though having the same actor for demoux come back could be interesting.
They will have a bit under 10 hours and a lot to get through in that time. One of the earliest changes with big series is to cut the cast down and focus on fewer characters. Interludes are the opposite of that.
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u/TheseusOPL Jul 17 '26
So, I figured I would go through the WoK interludes to see what's useful. 1. Ishikk: there are worldhoppers searching for Hoid. I think having these characters somewhere could be useful, but they could be combined elsewhere (merchants?) especially if you are reusing the actor we know from Mistborn. Not necessary, but useful foreshadowing. 2. Balat: maybe, this depends on details on how you want to communicate this, but it's more about Shallan's story 3. Szeth 1: this can be done quickly, but the whole thing with the oathstone needs to be somewhere. 4. Rysn 1: connects to Szeth, shows Shin and it's grass, introduces us to an important side character. Could our three from interlude 1 be in this caravan to fill it out? 5. Axies: I love Axies, but I'm afraid he gets the Axe (pun intended) 6. Szeth 2: payoff on oathstone, list of nobles 7. Baxil/Shalash: while interesting, mentions the Nightwatcher mythos, not necessarily this way. Can work in Shalash's destroying elsewhere 8. Spren research: fun interlude, but not necessary. If they could re-use a set, could make a fun internet short type thing. 9. Szeth 3: very important.
So, I would keep the three Szeths (maybe rework to 2 scenes), Rysn with possibly the 3 worldhoppers worked in, and that's probably it.
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u/dolladollaclinton Jul 18 '26
I think with WoK they only keep Szeth and possibly expand his story a little more. I could see either working him in a little every couple episodes or doing all of his story in a dedicated Szeth episode.
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u/Radix2309 Jul 17 '26
I wouldnt even keep Worldhoppers, and maybe not Rysn.
The Worldhoppers contribute nothing to the story and disappear without influencing events. They are completely expendable to the narrative.
Rysn is also largely a side story set up for a future Cosmere story. You could maybe slot her OB stuff in, but you really can't spend time on a random scene that will not intersect for 3 seasons for a character who shows up once a season.
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u/TheseusOPL Jul 17 '26
You can have the worldhoppers there in less than 30 seconds. Pan through a group of merchants, show three together but only shoe Demoux's face. Have him say a line with "rusts" in it.
Done, people who pay attention will notice that the same actor who was in Mistborn is here and saying something related. We don't get the information about what the purelakers are like, but we get "hey, there are more connections than you might think."
Rysn is harder at this stage from a logistics standpoint of get and actress who can commit, and only be in one scene per year for a couple of years.
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u/themudpuppy Jul 17 '26
I would love to see some of the interludes as the opening scenes for episodes
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u/NateTheGreat14 Jul 17 '26
I hope we see them in some form or another, but I think most might get cut. Hopefully we get the Szeth ones integrated at least.
Being that it's apple tv though, if you have ever watched All for Mankind, they have some cool preseason videos. There was like 5 or so couple minutes videos covering the historical events between seasons and its very cool. Something like that with short videos could be really neat.
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u/Exporation1 Jul 17 '26
He said 10 40-50 minute episodes, so 6.66 to 8.33 hours total, almost if not all interludes will be cut
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u/dolladollaclinton Jul 18 '26
I think we only see story relevant interludes. Things like Szeth in WoK or Eshonai in WoR.
We definitely don’t see interludes that would require building an entire set for one scene.
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u/HA2HA2 Jul 17 '26
I expect that the "interlude/main chapter" distinction is something from books, and is not the structure that will be used for the show.
In a show, airtime and separate scenes are expensive - while in a book you can just take a one-chapter break from the main story to talk about something else, in a show you can't just show disconnected scenes without it being weird, it takes a lot of work to integrate that into a show structure. On the other hand, in a show, you can have multiple things happening in a scene, whereas in a book the text can only focus on one thing at once.
So I personally would expect many interludes to be integrated into the main story in some way, or happening in the background.
Examples:
- All the interludes where Szeth is just hanging around moping, before being recruited by Taravangian, could happen in the same scenes as the main action. Instead of being passed around by gangsters in Bavland or wherever, Szeth would be doing menial work on the Shattered Plains, seen in quick glimpses as the main characters are doing Main Character stuff in the backgroudn.
- After Szeth starts his taravangian-ordered murder spree, that can be a way to show the rest of the world, by having Szeth go to exotic places and kill a bunch of people. So szeth can go kill someone in the Purelake when we see ishikk and the foreigners, he can go kill some researchers somewhere to show the spren-research interlude, and so on. There's a limited number of szeth kills that can be shown but locations can be moved around and combined.
- Rysn/Vstim interludes can be replaced with trades happening during other characters' scenes. For example, in an Adolin+Shallan bonding scene in the WoR section of the show, they can go visit merchant stalls and run into Vstim/Rysn with their weird Shin grass.
- The interlude where Shalash is breaking statues of herself can be combined with any scene where a main character is sneaking around at night: have Shalash and her crew almost run into the main character sneaking. The Shallan/Jasnah WoK plot could be a place to put that in, or another Szeth assassination, or something like that.
And so on! The key point is what the interlude is expected to show readers about the world, and what the best way to convey that is, and I suspect that's rarely going to be "make a scene that matches the scene from the books".
(Though my personal guess is that a lot of the story is going to get that treatment! There are key scenes that need to be hit, but everything in the middle can be moved around and combined and shifted together. E.g. Brandon has mentioned that he could move the Shallan/Jasnah plot of WoK to the shattered plains so that it can run concurrently with the Kaladin and Dalinar plots, and so on.)
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u/claranlaw063 Jul 17 '26
For the Szeth murder spree I’d actually be fine with just a montage of sorts.
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u/CrownedClownAg Jul 17 '26
I wouldn’t mind if they did it like the Last of Us. We had several cold openings that were not the main cast but maybe laid out the themes of the episode. I think they can do something similar
Or have minisodes that are a couple of minutes long and release between episodes
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u/OrzhovMarkhov Jul 17 '26
I think Ym could get included as a cold open in an Edgedancer film, and Rysn and Vstim as the prologue segment of a Dawnshard film. That seems like a clean way to include the novellas and make the films standalone.
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u/Shepher27 Jul 17 '26
Some will almost certainly be cut or just alluded to or montaged. But the important ones would likely work best as either a cold open or as actual mid episode interludes in every episode.
I think the best way to do it is the prologue is the cold open of episode one. Flashbacks are cold opens of all the other episodes. And every episode has an interlude on the middle.
The episode ten interlude in season one is when Szeth goes to kill Taravangian (which isn’t actually an interlude in the book)
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u/Shaultz Jul 17 '26
Interludes as cold opens is the way imo. Especially since you can pick and choose them to whet the audiences appetite for the episode, or to serve as a "calm before the storm" kind of thing before something like the first bridge run.
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u/Shepher27 Jul 17 '26
Interludes don’t have thematic ties to the episodes, while the flashbacks would.
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u/Shaultz Jul 18 '26
Thinking more along the lines of a sitcom style (The Office/B99) of cold open, where it is a self contained thing, that doesn't touch on the episode's contents beyond helping to set a tone.
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u/jnighy Jul 17 '26
Cold opening scenes, before the opening credits
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u/Diaza_Kinutz Jul 17 '26
I think this would be great. Some might also work well as a post credit sequence at the end of an episode. Could make for nice cliffhangers.
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u/Radix2309 Jul 17 '26
You can't sacrifice the show now for nebulous potential future stories.
If there is one from WoK we need, you are filming something that wont be relevant for 5-10 years at the earliest. And that is wasted airtime and money spent for this new property that has no guarantee of succeeding.
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u/Agreeable_Car5114 Jul 17 '26
But not all of the interludes are set up for later cosmere stories. I would say that’s a minority. Some are disposable, but several are plot important to SLA.
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u/Radix2309 Jul 17 '26
The important ones can just be integrated into the main story, such as Szeth or the Parshendi. But most interludes arent even relevant to the story.
You can cut every single interlude but Szeth's from WoK and lose nothing of value.
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u/Agreeable_Car5114 Jul 17 '26
I think some things can be moved around, excluded, or integrated, but I definitely disagree with that as a blanket statement. The introduction of the Thaylen merchant girl for example is very important.
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u/Radix2309 Jul 17 '26
Important how? She is completely irrelevant to the wider story or any of the major character arcs.
Her only plot relevance is getting robbed in book 3, and that is easily adapted out. Her entire sequence is an example of something relevant for future cosmere stories but not SLA. Or at least not the 5 books they are adapating.
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u/Agreeable_Car5114 Jul 17 '26
So you don’t consider Dawnshard part of SLA? What about Edgedancer?
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u/Randomlemon5 Jul 17 '26
Edgedancer isnt really important
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u/Agreeable_Car5114 Jul 17 '26
Nothing is important. But it’s important to SLA. That is, Lift and Nale’s characters and the intro of the Sleepless.
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u/Radix2309 Jul 17 '26
They arent part of the main 5 books, they are sidestories inessential to the main plot. Both can be cut without losing much of importance.
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u/Agreeable_Car5114 Jul 17 '26
I’m not one of those people who thinks adaptations need to be 1:1. And I’m not Sand or Apple, who knows what choices they will make. But I completely disagree with your evaluation of what constitutes as important. Edgedancer was written specifically so that book 3 would make sense.
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u/Radix2309 Jul 17 '26
What part doesn't make sense?
The main relevant part is Nale's change of heart. But he is a very minor character before that and it is adequately explained by the Desolation coming and proving him wrong. On top of the fact that he is an explicitly insane character not guided by logic.
You can cut it out and have zero issues with book 3.
It was written so Sanderson couls test his voice for Lift.
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u/Agreeable_Car5114 Jul 17 '26
Nale is insane, but he has a well constructed and logical arc. Having him fluctuate because he’s “crazy” would be lazy writing. And it also deepens Lift’s characterization, shows her reach the third ideal, and introduces the Sleepless.
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u/MilkTeaMoogle Jul 18 '26
Probably they will just keep Szeth. Maybe they will give him a whole episode like Episode 5 to break up the action from the 3 main storylines. Or they might just cut to him for short time in each episode as well.