The Witcher news roundup: new cast, NYCC and a sneak-peek of Jaskier’s song

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New York Comic Con is here and, while we were hoping for something related to The Witcher, nothing significant has come of it. That said, there have been a few items of news worth catching up on.

On the first day of NYCC, there was a panel dedicated to Hivemind Productions featuring several producers of The Witcher. However, they were sworn to secrecy under pain of death by Netflix. Still, they managed to give a few of their thoughts on the upcoming series, praising showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich and lead actor Henry Cavill. Check out the brief video below to hear it from the Hivemind panelists themselves.

In other news, we have some new pieces of casting to share. First up, we have English film and theatre veteran Ron Cook, who you may have seen in 1983’s Richard III, Hot Fuzz, and HBO’s Chernobyl, among many other projects. Unfortunately, we’re not yet sure which character Ron will portray as his agency CV doesn’t list the role. Could he be our Borch Three Jackdaws?

Ron Cook

Next up, we have Hungarian actor Ferenc Iván Szabó as a militia guard. It’s likely he’s in the same scenes as Martin Angerbauer who also plays a militia guard. Both guards are suspected to appear in Episode 5, the adaptation of the iconic short story The Last Wish.

Beyond casting, composer Sonya Belousova has posted a picture of a pile of sheet music, one titled “Jaskier songs”. The Witcher’s fandom wouldn’t be what it is if we didn’t try to get the most out of it. As a result, we have several short covers or interpretations of the music. Listen to them below.

Other than that, we spotted a brief interview with Royce Pierreson, who plays the sorcerer Istredd, on his time working on The Witcher. Watch the video below:

In another interview, this time with Digital Spy, Royce was asked how similar The Witcher was to, yes, you guessed it, Game of Thrones. Royce answered the following:

The Witcher has its own world and universe and there are always going to be genre comparisons, but I think The Witcher has its own proper characters and their own struggles. And I think that’s what people will see and really connect with. It’s a huge scale project – it’s very intimate in terms of the character studies, which is what I love. When it comes to taking a role, that’s the most important thing.”

He added: “It’s an amazing ensemble piece, and every character has their own journey and their own story.”

Speaking of people sharing their experience on set, here’s director Marc Jobst on working with Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan respectively.

And while it seems like a calm before the storm now regarding Witcher news, the cast and crew are still hard at work. For instance, Adam Levy, who plays the druid Mousesack, has been doing automated dialog replacement (ADR) — which you can read more about in one of our previous news roundups — for the series.

Last but not least, the English version of the short story collection The Last Wish will be reissued on November 12 with a new, Netflix-influenced cover. It’s likely the rest of the books in Sapkowski’s The Witcher saga will follow suit with new covers. You can pre-order The Last Wish here.

That’s it for today’s roundup. Hopefully, The Witcher‘s promotion campaign will start ramping up soon. Redanian Intelligence will keep you updated with the latest until then.

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