Warning: SPOILERS for The Wheel of Time season 2.
The Wheel of Time season 2 ended with a number of its core characters primed to accept their talents and roles. Rand al’Thor is proclaimed the Dragon Reborn, Mat Cauthon discovers he is a hero in his own right, and Perrin Aybara embraces the side of himself that is bonded with wolves. All three characters are integral to the ultimate defeat of Ishamael at the end of the season, setting the stage for an exploration of their powers in season 3.
Through Perrin’s wolf connection in The Wheel of Time season 2, audiences are introduced to another star of the show, Ka Lupinka, the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog who plays Hopper. Hopper is a huge player in Perrin’s story, helping to save him from the Whitecloaks before ultimately being killed by one; because of this, Perrin is prompted to take revenge, setting him on a collision course with up-and-coming Whitecloack villain Dain Bornhold. The bond between Rutherford and Ka Lupinka is evident on screen, helping to truly sell Perrin’s season 2 arc. Rutherford had this to say about working with his four-legged co-star:
Marcus Rutherford: There’s a limit to the scale of what you can do with [real animals]. You can’t have these big VFX scary creatures and all this kind of stuff, so you kind of have to accept that, but what you get from it is a real animal and a real connection. You get a real connection that people can see on screen, and you can’t really cheat that. I think a lot of people can probably relate to their own pet in a way that I just don’t think a CGI animal could bring across on screen.
And that dog was a freak, man. It was so well-trained. On the day that we did that, they got her to lie down and look at you past the camera. In that moment the dog acts quiet, but you’ve got people doing fight sequences outside, you’ve got people talking, you’ve got a boom guy, you’ve got a sound guy; all this, and the dog’s just lying there looking straight at me, and it was amazing.
There were a lot of moments where I was like, “This is really special.” There’s a scene where he’s talking to Elyas, and I was like, “Oh my God. The dog’s got to sit here for this whole scene; it’s going to be quite hard.” Then they brought in this massive deer carcass for all the other dogs to eat just over there, and I was just like, “What? You’re telling me she’s just got to stay there for the whole scene, seeing all her friends eat?” And there were moments where it was so cold—it was, like, snowing—and I was just like, “This isn’t going to work. We can try it,” and she just stayed there the whole time. She didn’t try and run off, didn’t try to run to the owner, didn’t try and eat.
Hopper’s Impact On Perrin’s Future, Explained
The Wheel of Time season 2 ending saw Perrin’s eyes take on a golden hue, seemingly for good. This is a sign that Perrin has finally embraced the part of himself that is boded with wolves and is largely thanks to Hopper. In the books, Perrin’s eyes become a distinguishing feature among his friends and enemies alike, ultimately earning him the informal title of Perrin Goldeneyes. Thanks to the performances of both Marcus Rutherford and Ka Lupinka, a major moment in Perrin’s acceptance of himself—the moment in which Hopper is killed—translates effectively to the screen.
Spoilers for the books follow; in Robert Jordan’s novels, Hopper’s death also does not mean the end of the wolf’s story with Perrin. Marcus Rutherford’s Screen Rant interview doesn’t confirm or deny whether Ka Lupinka will return in season 3 as Hopper, but in Jordan’s books, Hopper lives on in Tel’aran’rhiod, the Dream World, known to Wolfbrothers like Perrin as the Wolf Dream. In the books, Hopper continues to mentor Perrin, helping him to understand the Dream World as well as his bond with wolves.
Whether or not Hopper will return after his death remains to be seen; The Wheel of Time series has often tweaked storylines to tell a more compact story. The importance of the relationship between Hopper and Perrin is huge, however, meaning that Hopper’s role would likely need to be filled by someone in any case. With the clear bond between Marcus Rutherford and Ka Lupinka evident on screen, it does seem likely that The Wheel of Time season 3 will bring back Perrin’s companion in the end.
The Wheel of Time
Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan’s expansive fantasy series is brought to life in The Wheel of Time, a fantasy tv series created for Amazon Prime Video. The series follows a woman named Moiraine, a member of the all-female Aes Sedai group who can utilize a great power. Following an attack on a local village, Moiraine heads there to find a villager that may be the reincarnation of an all-powerful dragon that will either save or destroy the world.
