Season 3 of The Wheel of Time will feature some unlikely alliances and "deeply psychotic" new villains among the Forsaken.

Although The Wheel of Time is filled with antagonists in the form of Darkfriends, Black Ajah, and even the oppressive Seanchan and Whitecloaks, its true "big bads" are the Forsaken, powerful channelers whose bond with the Dark One allows them to live from one Age to the next. Because they are disproportionately more powerful than the Aes Sedai of the present, they may appear invincible, but our chat with showrunner Rafe Judkins and actors Rosamund Pike and Natasha O'Keeffe reveals a possible means of defeat in season 3 and beyond.

Judkins teases that the answer might lie in the increasingly unstable relationship between the Forsaken, especially as each one awakens with their own agenda. "It's really one of the fun things to see: these variations of evil thrown up against each other," he says. "Can they work together? Do they work more against each other than they do with each other? All of that, I think, is such an exciting flavor in the books, and it's really fun when you get to see it come to life on the show."

Although Ishamael, the first Forsaken introduced in The Wheel of Time, was defeated at the end of season 2, Lanfear, who has a soft spot for The Dragon she is meant to conquer, is very much still around, and Judkins' characterization of her is interesting to say the least. "I actually think Lanfear, for all of her evil misdeeds, is probably one of the kinder, more human of the Forsaken," he says.

Moiraine, according to Pike who plays the Aes Sedai protector, thinks that kindness might be exploitable. "What Moiraine knows about Lanfear is that she loved the Dragon historically, and there's allure for her in Rand that's romantic," she says. "And perhaps that's the thing that's going to keep him safe. I think she feels she won't kill him."