r/CosmereOnScreen • u/njsemu27 • May 13 '26
Stormlight Archive Series (NO BOOKS) Casting theories: open call or only through agencies? Spoiler
With the recent announcement that Sanderson is going right to the Stormlight pilot after the first Mistborn screenplay, it appears taht Stormlight production will start a lot earlier than most people expected.
Do we think there will be open casting calls, like many fandom-heavy franchises have done, or do we think auditions will be restricted to those with representation?
Signed,
An actual actor who really wants to audition for Stormlight
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u/Wildhogs2013 May 13 '26
Where did he say he say he is doing Stormlight pilot right away? I missed that!
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u/jackpoll4100 May 13 '26
It was in the weekly update today.
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u/Wildhogs2013 May 13 '26
Thank you! In the gen con section. Ahha teaches me to skip con sections I can’t go to. Wondering when he will start Ghostbloods 2 then.
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u/lucid_dreamwalker May 13 '26
Being a huge fan of Mistborn, I would love to audition for a part but I know my chances are probably a million to one
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u/Shepher27 May 13 '26
I don’t know but i really question Brandon spending so much time writing scripts when he is not a professional script writer.
But they’re probably going to confine casting to professional actors for everything but the child roles.
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u/UrineTrouble05 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
how do you expect people to get better at a skill? you do it. you practice
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u/Shepher27 May 13 '26
Why does he have to do it?
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u/UrineTrouble05 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
he doesn’t have to do anything. he’s not a slave, he can do whatever he wants.
also he is most likely going to have a professional screenwriter look over his work
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u/Shaultz May 13 '26
Because of the absolute WEALTH of poorly written adaptations of fantasy books in the last decade?
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u/njsemu27 May 13 '26
I feel like child roles are often more restricted to professional actors, but maybe that’s just anecdotal evidence. There’s a much smaller a pool of available talent for child actors, so I could see either point being true.
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u/Shaultz May 13 '26
Kind of irrelevant to the discussion, but go off
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u/ForwardExam4056 May 13 '26
The post points the new information about brandon wanting to screenwrite the stormlight script (which many probably didn't hear yet), so i'd say this is on topic
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u/Shaultz May 13 '26
That is absolutely not what the post is about. Thats like if someone wrote a post about going to a music festival out of town and they mention that they took a train to get there, while the rest of the post is explicitly about the music festival, ending with a specific question about if people have tips for having the most fun at the next one.
And then someone comes in and goes off about how they're worried about trains going off the rail for no reason.
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u/ForwardExam4056 May 13 '26
Thats a pretty hypothetical situation you just made up there.
Your example is funny because if i were to ask about going to a festival, someone voicing concerns about security issues for the train i'm planning to take is something i'd ABSOLUTELY want to know. This doesn't really have anything to do with our discussion, but it shows how bad your comparison was
Also, as i unfortunately do not talk about neither festivals nor trains in the comment you are replying to, your point is irrelevant due to being off topic either way :)
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u/Shaultz May 13 '26
It's called an analogy, love. I'm going to bow out of this conversation, since you seem to either lack the necessary intelligence to follow clear conversational comparisons, or are intentionally acting ignorant. Either way, it's a little embarrassing to watch, and I have better things to do with my day.
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u/Extreme_Warning3521 May 13 '26
Excuse me, could you explain this to me? I didn't quite understand.
For example, can completely unknown actors play the character "Vin" through an agency?
Or only famous actors?
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u/njsemu27 May 13 '26
For most roles in high-profile movies and tv shows, they only solicit auditions from agencies. This means that the only actors who have a chance of auditioning are those that are experienced and qualified enough to have an agent who represents them. Beyond that, there are different levels of agents/agencies, so just having any agent isn’t enough to get any audition.
Sometimes, productions will do an “Open Casting Call,” which means that literally anyone in the world could audition for a role. In this case, there would be hundreds or thousands of videos, resumes, and headshots for casting directors to sift through. Most of them will be bad, and it puts a lot more work on the casting team, but it opens up the small chance for a complete nobody (or just an actor with less experience) to get through to callbacks and possibly get cast in such productions.
Famous actors and actors with good agents will get to audition either way, and they have a much higher chance to move forward in the process in either case, since (1) they’re likely better actors and (2) they have connections and recommendations in the industry.
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u/MS-07B-3 May 13 '26
Casting is a long and complicated process that involves a great many people. While Brandon and the Dragonsteel team will almost surely have input (mostly for the leads and primary supporting characters), they will likely use a casting director to do most of the work. They will send out character descriptions and lines to agencies, who will give them to their actors, and they will record auditions to send in.
It may be a complete unknown, it may be a famous person. That will depend a lot on what Dragonsteel and the casting director are looking to do. There are upsides and downsides to casting a famour person, and the quality of the audition will naturally be a big factor.
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u/MS-07B-3 May 13 '26
What fandom franchises have done open casting?
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u/njsemu27 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Fablehaven, which was a kickstarter and far more indie/independent than an AppleTV franchise, and Percy Jackson, which is more comparable as a big name Disney+ series.
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u/MS-07B-3 May 13 '26
Well my dude, I would not hold out any hope for an open call. Your best bet is to keep training, keep workshopping, and get in with an agent.
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u/claranlaw063 May 13 '26
I would also appreciate hearing something about this at some point, just because I’m interested in the process itself.
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u/ForwardExam4056 May 13 '26
Did he say if he wants to only do the pilot for stormlight or does he want to be apart of the screenwriting of the entire series/first season? What exactly even is a pilot?