By While production on the highly anticipated second season of Netflix’s The Witcher is in full swing after an unfortunate Covid break, it seems the virus continues to cause misfortune for the series, starring Henry Cavill. Earlier today, Thue Rasmussen announced on his Twitter and Instagram pages that due to scheduling conflicts caused by the virus, he will no longer be portraying the fan favourite witcher Eskel.
What does this mean for the production exactly?
As we reported last week, the crew finished filming the second episode and moved on to block 2, starting with episode three. We also know, that episode two will take Geralt and Ciri to the witcher fortress of Kaer Morhen, which is going to be quite the busy place, unlike in the novels. Several new witchers as well as some mysterious female characters will be joining Geralt and co. in Kaer Morhen, where a big action scene will take place.
Naturally, Eskel will be there as well, which leads us to today’s unfortunate news. Since they moved on to the third episode already, it’s very likely that Thue Rasmussen dropping out is old news. They would have known about possible scheduling conflicts well in advance, making it likely that the second episode was filmed with a new actor already. This leads us to our second question.
Who is going to replace Thue?
We have two possible candidates. Firstly, it’s entirely possible that the new Eskel is one of the actors previously thought to be playing one of the new original witchers. Among them, Basil Eidenbenz seems to be the obvious candidate. Not only does he have more acting experience than the others, but he is also of the same height and build as Thue, not to mention the similarity in appearances. Granted, he is a bit younger than the other witcher actors, but we know makeup and prosthetics can do wonders!
Our second candidate is Craig McGinlay. He is the more unlikely choice of the two, since we have nothing to go on apart from his social media activity. He recently posted a photo with Henry Cavill, praising the series, and also followed several show related accounts including director Stephen Surjik. Craig fits Thue’s profile age wise, but on the other hand he is taller and heavier than Thue.
Meanwhile filming continues with the other witchers having a bit of fun on set.
It seems like Lambert took things into his own hands only to be made fun of by the others. Poor guy.
While we wait for official word on Thue’s replacement, Redanian Intelligence will keep an eye on these developments.
It is unfortunate and I think Thue Rasmussen would make a great Eskel – I already imagined him in the role as I re-read the books – but I hope we’ll see Eskel in s2 with another actor and maybe Thue Rasmussen can be cast in another role later in the show.
It’s nice to see that even with social distancing the cast can still prank each other.
I am really sorry for the actor, it could have been his breakthrough as a witcher, wish him all best