Ewan McGregor’s daughter Esther has landed the lead role in the highly anticipated television adaptation of bestselling fantasy novel Fourth Wing.
The 24-year-old actress has been officially confirmed as Violet Sorrengail in the new Prime Video series based on Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean books.
She will star opposite German actor Emilio Sakraya, who has been cast as Xaden Riorson.
The announcement gives McGregor what the biggest role of her acting career so far, placing her at the centre of a series Prime Video hopes can become its next major fantasy franchise.
Fourth Wing follows Violet, a young woman who expects to enter the Scribe Quadrant and live a quiet life surrounded by books and history.
Instead, she is ordered by her mother to join hundreds of candidates competing to become dragon riders at the brutal Basgiath War College.
Violet’s physical fragility makes the training particularly dangerous, while the dragons themselves will incinerate candidates they consider unsuitable.
She also encounters Xaden, a powerful and intimidating senior cadet with his own reasons to distrust her.
The first Fourth Wing novel became an international publishing phenomenon after its release in 2023 and helped drive a huge resurgence in romantic fantasy fiction.
It was followed by Iron Flame later that year and Onyx Storm in 2025, with Yarros planning five books in the series.
Confirming the casting, Yarros revealed that the production had conducted a worldwide search for the actors who would play Violet and Xaden.
She said: “Finding the right Violet and Xaden has been an adventure, and I’m so excited to finally announce that Esther McGregor and Emilio Sakraya will be bringing these characters to life.”
McGregor responded to the announcement by saying she was: “So beyond excited. Honored. Thrilled.”
Meredith Averill, whose credits include The Haunting of Hill House and Wednesday, is serving as showrunner.
Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy is set to direct the first episode, while Black Panther and Creed star Michael B. Jordan is among the executive producers through his Outlier Society production company.
Esther is one of five children of Perth-born actor Ewan McGregor and appeared alongside her father in Obi-Wan Kenobi. She has also worked as a model and musician.