‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’: These 10 Stars Have Joined the Netflix Prequel
As The Witcher ramps up excitement about its upcoming second season, Netflix has announced 10 cast members for its prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin. Following Jodie Turner-Smith’s departure from the show earlier this year, the streamer revealed that Sophia Brown and Michelle Yeoh would star in the project alongside Vikings actor Laurence O’Fuarain. It’s now rounding out its cast with a slew of stars. Fans will recognize some of them from shows like Sex Education, Harlots, Young Wallander, and The Capture.
What is ‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’ about?
The Witcher: Blood Origin will reportedly take place 1200 years prior to the original series. Like Netflix’s anime film The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, it will show what this world looked like before Henry Cavill’s Geralt of Rivia started exploring it. This appears to be a trend with Netflix’s spinoffs, with both of them exploring the original story’s history.
According to Deadline, the six-episode prequel will build up to an event called the “Conjunction of the Spheres.” This will see monsters, humans, and elves coming to coexist — something that wasn’t always the case on the Continent. The Witcher: Blood Origin will also delve into witcher history, revealing how the very first witcher came to be.
Since Sophia Brown’s Éile serves as the show’s main character, it’s possible the first witcher was actually a woman. Either that or Éile was heavily involved in their creation. Decider points out that her character is supposed to be a warrior, however, which falls more in line with the former explanation. That would offer an interesting twist, especially given Ciri’s journey to becoming a witcher in season 2.
Who joined the cast of ‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’?
The Witcher‘s official Twitter account unveiled 10 new cast members for the prequel series, some relative newcomers and others already accustomed to working on large television productions. It also listed which characters they’ll play in The Witcher: Blood Origin, though it didn’t offer details about them. Here’s the full lineup for the upcoming show:
- Mirren Mack as Merwyn
- Lenny Henry as Balor
- Jacob Collins-Levy as Eredin
- Lizzie Annis as Zacaré
- Huw Novelli as Brother Death
- Francesca Mills as Meldof
- Amy Murray as Fenrik
- Nathaniel Curtis as Brían
- Zach Wyatt as Syndril
- Dylan Moran as Uthrok One-Nut
Viewers might recognize Mirren Mack from season 2 of Netflix’s Sex Education and Francesca Mills from Hulu’s Harlots. Meanwhile, Lenny Henry has held roles on Broadchurch and The Syndicate and is also slated to appear in Amazon Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings TV series. Huw Novelli joins after a role in The Capture, and Jacob Collins-Levy recently appeared in 2020’s Young Wallander.
In addition to revealing more cast members, The Witcher also shared an update about the creative team behind its Blood Origin prequel:
“Also joining as directors are Sarah O’Gorman and Vicky Jewson. Declan de Barra will act as Executive Producer and Showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and Matt O’Toole will serve as Executive Producers, and Andrzej Sapkowski is on board as creative consultant on the series.”
When does ‘The Witcher’ prequel come out on Netflix?
Netflix hasn’t announced an official release date for The Witcher prequel, which appears to be in the early stages of production. According to Deadline, the show has begun filming in the U.K.
If all goes smoothly, that means fans could see The Witcher: Blood Origin sometime in 2022. With The Witcher Season 2 coming out later this year, that puts the streamer on track to release new content from this franchise annually — a trend it could continue if it intends to renew the main series for a third outing.
