Already much-cited around the SFF blogosphere, Suvudu reported from Comic-Con in San Diego last week that a panel was held on the long-rumored television series based on Terry Goodkind's fantasy series The Sword of Truth.  Renamed 'Legend of the Seeker,' the main roles have already been cast.  Here's Suvudu's initial report on the panel:

Terry Goodkind, the author of the bestselling The Sword of Truth series, visited Comic-Con today with director Sam Raimi and those who produced the television shows Xena and Hercules. Together as a panel, they laid out their plans for adapting Wizard's First Rule into a 22-episode season to air on ABC via Disney.

I will be posting a lot more news on this in the forthcoming days, but I wanted to share with Goodkind fans that the name of the ABC series is Legend of the Seeker and it will begin November 1, 2008. Richard Cypher and Kahlen have been cast, but today Sam Raimi announced the casting of Zedd. The actor playing the wizard Zedd is Bruce Spence, who had minor roles in LOTR: Return of the King and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith but who has decades of acting experience.

More to come in the next few days!

Bruce Spence played the Mouth of Sauron in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and the Utapau representive (the weird alien Obi-Wan talks to after arriving on the planet in search of General Grievous) in Episode III.  He also played the Trainman in The Matrix Revolutions, in case you were wondering.  The other two main leads are relatively unknown, at least to me.

The fact that Sam Raimi is directing seems promising, but the Disney/ABC thing still bothers me.  I'm not a Terry Goodkind fan, but I don't like to see fantasy done badly, and it still seems unlikely that as massive and graphic a novel as Wizard's First Rule could be done well on network television, even in 22 episodes.  The rumor that the title was changed to "Legend of the Seeker" from "Wizard's First Rule" to avoid offending religious viewers who have a problem with "sorcery," if true, confirms my fear that the writers and the network are all too willing to compromise story for the sake of avoiding potential brouhaha.  The Sword of Truth, as a series, is potentially offensive from start to finish: even putting the overt Objectivist theme of the books aside, the storyline regularly includes graphic violence, often at the same time as sexual content.  Wizard's First Rule alone, if I remember correctly, involves a scene featuring Darken Rahl, the primary antagonist, participating in a dark ritual too disgusting to mention this soon after lunch.

Take away every part of these books that is likely to offend someone seriously and you're left with a derivative fantasy story unlikely to be improved upon by being adapted for network television.

But I'm willing to be proven wrong, and of course I'll be watching.  I'm going to make CJ sit down and watch it with me, whether she wants to or not.  We'll keep you updated on this, as we have in the past, complete with scathing commentary.

Update: Cinemablend.com has a fuller report of what took place on the Legend of the Seeker panel at San Diego Comic-Con, including Terry Goodkind's comments and Sam Raimi's intentions for the show's format and style.

Update: My friend Bill pointed out that I'm more familiar with the casting than I thought.  The official website states that Craig Parker, who you might know as Haldir from The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, has been cast as Darken Rahl, the main villain.  The guy who played Captain Typho, Queen Amidala's bodyguard in Star Wars Episodes II and III, has also been cast to play Chase.