Season three of Netflix’s smash hit series The Witcher will not hit our screens until sometime in 2023; however, the streaming platform is diving even deeper into the fantastical world with a limited prequel series. The Witcher: Blood Origin’s announcement comes as the franchise dives deeper into witcher lore and the brotherhood. The upcoming spinoff is set more than a century before the flagship series, in the Elven world before human intrusion.
Here’s everything we know about The Witcher: Blood Origin.
Title
The title of this series is The Witcher: Blood Origin.
The Witcher: Blood Origin‘s Plot
Set 1200 years before Geralt of Rivia’s adventures throughout the continent, The Witcher: Blood Origin explores the long-forgotten tale of the first witchers. From the official Netflix logline:
“Set in an elven world 1,200 years before the world of The Witcher, Blood Origin will tell a story lost to time – the origin of the very first Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal “conjunction of the spheres,” when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one.”
Blood Origin creator and writer Declan de Barra told Entertainment Weekly the story takes place in a pre-colonized world. It’s really about what that world would look like for elves before humans brought civilization to them. Executive producer Lauren Schmidt Hissrich adds the world at that time was much more of a Golden Age than what we see in the The Witcher, set hundreds of years later.
We got the first teaser trailer for the series in December 2021 and it really amped up the action. With the show only a few months away, a proper trailer should be on the horizon.
Recently, also learned that Minnie Driver would come aboard this prequel series. Minnie Driver will play Seanchaí, a teller of stories, in The Witcher: Blood Origin. Fans speculate that Driver’s character could be key in connecting the world of Blood Origin with the main The Witcher series.
Behind the Scenes
Declan de Barra is the showrunner and executive producer alongside The Witcher‘s Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and Sean Daniel. The writing team features a host of names, including Alex Meenehan, Aaron Stewart-Ahn, Tania Lotia, Kiersten Van Horne, Declan de Barra, and Tasha Huo. Andrzej Sapkowski, who wrote the The Witcher books, will consult on the series. The series will also boast two directors, Sarah O’Gorman and Vicky Jewson.
The Witcher: Blood Origin‘s Cast
Vikings actor Laurence O’Fuarain will lead the series. O’Fuarain, whose casting we learned about at Deadline, will play a warrior named Fjall. In a pair of tweets, The Witcher‘s official Twitter account described Fjall as a warrior carrying “a deep scar within.” Starring beside O’Fuarain will be the great Michelle Yeoh, whose casting was announced in July. Yeoh will play a character named Scían; details below:
“Scían is the very last of her nomadic tribe of sword-elves. No one can come close to her artistry with the blade, and no one carries as much loss within their heart. When a chance presents itself to retrieve a stolen sacred sword, taken from her fallen tribe by nefarious means, she launches herself into a deadly quest that will change the outcome of the Continent.”
On the heels of Yeoh’s casting, Variety reported that Sophia Brown would be joining the cast as Éile. (Queen & Slim star Jodie Turner-Smith was cast as Éile in January, but Deadline reported in April that she left the project due to scheduling issues.) Netflix describes Éile as “a fierce warrior with the voice of a goddess.”
The Witcher: Blood Origin also shared the rest of its cast. Per Deadline, UK comedy legend Sir Lenny Henry, Mirren Mack, Nathaniel Curtis and Dylan Moran are among the 10 casting additions. Henry, who is also starring in the upcoming The Rings of Power, will play a character called Balor. Mack will be voicing Merwyn, Curtis will be voicing Brían, and Moran will be voicing Uthrok One-Nut. Also joining the cast are Jacob Collins Levy, Amy Murray, Lizzie Annis, Huw Novelli, Francesca Mills, and Zach Wyatt. They will be playing Eredin, Fenrik, Zacaré, Brother Death, Meldof, and Syndril, respectively.
The Witcher: Blood Origin‘s Release Date
All four episodes of The Witcher: Blood Origin will hit Netflix on December 25.
Originally published on July 27, 2020.
