Veteran genre producer John Shiban has joined the production team on Wizard's First Rule, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert's adaptation of Terry Goodkind's fantasy book series.

Shiban, who helped create the X-Files spin off The Lone Gunmen as well as working for seven years on the parent series, says that he is enjoying the freedom of syndication. "We don't have to worry about network issues and what our competition is," he told Variety. "It's nice to know we can tell this whole first season of stories."

Like The X-Files, Wizard's First Rule will mix self-contained episodes with ones that forward the mythology. "There's an overarching mythology to the series, but the job of Seeker allows [the lead character] to fight evil in self-contained episodes," Shiban noted.

Wizard's First Rule starts shooting in May for an autumn roll out in 84% of the US syndication market.