By More than two months have passed since showrunner Lauren Hissrich, Henry Cavill, and the team of The Witcher left the relative isolation of Arborfield Studios to film on location. While we don’t know what remains to be filmed, casting news have been sparse, apart from our recent report on Queen Meve. With several main roles still outstanding, we can’t help but thinking there’s still some way to go.
Today, we can share three new additions to the cast. There’s also an update on an actress we mentioned in a previous report, and the role she plays seemingly confirms a theory of ours on what is going on in Kaer Morhen (obligatory spoiler warning). More details below the cut.
Three more to think about
First is Emily Pollet who played a series regular in ITV’s Emmerdale from 2014 to 2017. Her credits mention her character in The Witcher as Human Mother G, which is likely not the final name. If that’s too enigmatic for you, we may have something that explains who she is. Earlier this year, we found a witcher audition tape for a part called ‘character G’, uploaded by actress Nila Blue on vimeo. It’s very short. In fact it’s so short that we didn’t think much of it at the time. Now it looks like they are one and the same character.
In the video, the woman is begging someone not to separate her and another character (very likely her daughter): “Please you’re hurting her. Take me too. Please don’t separate us!” While the script doesn’t mention who she is pleading with, we think there’s something curious about her role being explicitly stated as ‘human’. Could this be a human woman who married an elf and gave birth to a half-elven daughter? If so, who is after them? Are they the victims of a racial pogrom or do they perhaps encounter the Scoia’tael, a notorious guerilla that is recruiting non-humans to their cause?
Next is Cayvan Coates who will join the cast in an as yet unknown role. The young actor recently graduated from the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and has mostly featured in theatre-plays, fitting casting director Sophie Holland’s appreciation for stage-talent.
Lastly, we have British actor James Eeles who appeared in productions such as Britannia, Peaky Blinders, Darkest Hour, and Fearless. We don’t know his role in the series but an October tweet from his agency mentions he will begin shooting for The Witcher soon, which probably means he has started already.
Kaer Morhen is getting crowded
If you’ve been following The Witcher production news for some time, you may recall our September report on a fight scene taking place within the ruins of the ancient witcher fortress of Kaer Morhen. After learning that several actresses were present for the shoot, we speculated that they could play a group of sex workers who find themselves at Kaer Morhen for unknown reasons. One of the actresses has since updated her cv, confirming that she plays a sex worker in the show. We’ve left the entry below but cropped out the non-relevant details to avoid getting her into trouble.
We don’t how a group of sex workers would find their way to the secluded valley of Kaer Morhern in northern Kaedwen. Time will tell what their role is and how they figure into the fight scene shot in September. For now, we can just speculate.
In our original report, we brought up a new character code-named Anna who is described as ‘A fierce sex-worker joining a group of soldiers who she isn’t afraid to boss around‘. With the new evidence in mind, this Anna is presumably among the sex-workers present at Kaer Morher, while the ‘group of soldiers‘ likely refers to the witchers. It’s possible (though not confirmed) that they will also be joined by Imogen Daines’ Danica, a returning character who made Geralt’s acquaintance in season one.
That’s it for today. We hope to hear more casting soon, especially since we’re still waiting for heavyweights like Philippa, Rience or Dijkstra to be announced. Catch up on the latest production news on our twitter and stay tuned for more!
Who are these people? I don’t remember them from the books. I love all the spoilers lately, especially Geralt’s but we need Rience and Dijkstra please. Also, I hope they have created the city of Oxenfurt in the studio and the scenes that takes place there are held in secrecy bc they are a crucial part of the books. Unless they’ll end the season with the elven attract to Geralt and Ciri after Yen’s supposedly betrayal and they keep Rience and Michelets for s3 which I doubt.
*attack not attract 😅
I think the part with KM is a flashback.
As long as Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri gets the proper sceentime and bonding this season (I’m looking at you Brokilon forest and The Last Wish) , I don’t care if she bring new characters. Although I’d prefer to stick to the characters of the books (Philippa, Dijkstra, Rience, Michelets, Nenneke etc)
Emily Pollet could be playing Nenneke. Or Phillipa, but that would be a stretch from the role description. Or perhaps even Nimue, if she appears earlier, out of timeline. James Eels could appear as Rience. As the Redanian intelligence service will know full well, the role description lines can sometimes be misleading so as to not reveal the part that is to be cast. The more uneasy feeling is, though, that in fact some newly invented characters are being cast that aren’t part of the books or the games.
Good thinking about Rience. I can totally see him. I doubt about the others. But I agree with you. The books have so many rich characters and the show creates original boring characters or bring back characters who had one specific purpose in a short story and that was it. I hope I’m mistaken and this new characters are just there as an extra layer to the overall story and not to distract from it or to create new stories that will take time from our main heroes. Fingers crossed.
I think you might be right about Rience.
And my bet is that Cayvan is playing Jarre – the trainee priest who falls for Ciri while she’s studying with Nenneke and then runs away to go and serve in the War.
I don’t like to complain but who are these? Why haven’t announced the casting of Philippa, Dijkstra, Rience and the Michelet brothers yet? Are they adapting BoE? Maybe they keep those casting secret? I hope so. I hope they won’t pull another Brokilon forest. Add your own twist to the story if it’s possible but don’t rob us from the most essential story
(the sword of Destiny). I can forgive them for that because they’ll do „A grain of Truth“ in which Geralt and Ciri will have time to bond but don’t do it twice.
Do you have any information about Nightmare of the wolf? I would expect it to come out before s2 of the Witcher so I was hoping we’d have a trailer by now or at least some info. I hope we hear something soon.
It’s the digbeth kid from peaky blinders!!
Emily Pollet might play Cerro. She adopted Riannon, who is half-elf, and loved her. Later, Falka revolted, took Riannon from Cerro and imprisoned her… That who explain the “human” adjective and why she asked to be taken with her daughter… Doesn’t explain the ‘G’ in “human mother G” though…
I’ve just watched Cayvan Coates in the Vera episode: Recovery. Never seen him before. He was very convincing in his role and I’d say he will go places on stage, tv or film.