When fans of The Wheel of Time tune in for Season 2 tonight, one of the Emond’s Field Five is going to look a little different than he did last season. At long last, Irish actor Dónal Finn is taking over the role of Matrim “Mat” Cauthon from Season 1 star Barney Harris. Harris had to leave the first season abruptly, meaning that Mat never followed his friends through the Ways to Fal Dara. Instead, as we’ll learn in tonight’s three episode The Wheel of Time Season 2 premiere on Prime Video, Mat’s been stuck in the care of the Red Ajah. None other than Liandrin (Kate Fleetwood) has been keeping the trouble-making ta’veren under lock and key somewhere in Tar Valon.
There’s no canonical explanation for Mat’s recasting in the show nor has anyone gone on the record to clarify why Harris left the production in the first place. So it’s extraordinary to see how easily Dónal Finn fits into the Prime Video show’s magical world. When Decider interviewed the cast of The Wheel of Time two years ago, Finn’s new co-stars were quick to compliment him. Marcus Rutherford called Finn “an absolute joy to work with,” while Madeleine Madden and Josha Stradowski both described the actor as “brilliant.” Stradowski even predicted:”I think people will love him.”
“God, it’s very nice to hear that from the cast,” Finn said when Decider recalled his co-stars’ kind words in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike began. “Coming into the project was like such a whirlwind experience for me, that I kind of had to work really instinctually in the first instance, and I felt really supported in that.”
Finn revealed to Decider that his first days on set weren’t with Mat’s Emond’s Field pals, but with “the phenomenal Kate Fleetwood.” He gave Fleetwood and director Thomas Napper credit for making him feel comfortable in his new gig.
“I think they both understood that it was, you know, a necessity to work really instinctually,” Finn said. “We almost treated our scenes as if it was rehearsals for a play. We were in a blackbox studio and kind of got to experiment with the space.”
To prepare to play Mat, Finn said that he was spoiled in terms of research material. He said there was “so much source material…to build a character,” citing not only Robert Jordan’s books, but even Season 1 scripts. Because of that, he says that he can see echoes of his performance in what Harris did in The Wheel of Time Season 1.
“When I did finally see Season 1, I could find that there were correlations maybe, you know, subconscious correlations between Mat in Season 1 and Season 2,” Finn said. “I think that speaks to how clear the heart of the character is, you know?”
“It’s amazing to think there is a kind of a subconscious correlation because Mat’s personality and spirit is so vibrant, so loud and clear.”
The first three episodes of The Wheel of Time Season 2 premiere on Prime Video on 8 PM ET.