The Witcher prequel casts lead character’s sister and more

8 comments

There’s a lot of fresh action and excitement surounding Netflix’s The Witcher and its prequels these days. Fans got to see a first sneak peek of what Geralt (Henry Cavill), Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) and Ciri (Freya Allan) are up to, as well as a teaser of the animated prequel-movie Nightmare of the Wolf. Recent weeks also saw some major casting news for the live-action witcher prequel titled Blood Origin, with Michele Yeoh and Sophia Brown joining the previously announced Laurence O’Fuarain (Fjall).

Yeoh plays the elf Scian, a master-swordswoman and last of her clan. Brown plays the warrior Eile, taking over from Jodie Turner Smith, who had to step down due to scheduling issues. Besides these leads we know of several supporting roles and today we can add three more names to the list.


Most importantly, Ozioma Whenu will play Eile’s older sister Níamh. While we don’t know much else about the role, she is presumably part of the Raven clan, a group of elves said to favor knives as a weapon.

For Whenu, this will be the first major television part, having graduated from the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) last year. We’re looking forward to what she will bring to the table.

Ozioma Whenu

Actors Nathaniel Curtis and Tut Nyuot have also been cast in currently undisclosed roles. Curtis recently starred in Channel 4‘s drama miniseries It’s a Sin. Nyuot already has an impressive television resumé for his age, including appearances in Casualty, Dark Money and Small Axe. We’ll update you as soon as we learn more about their roles in Blood Origin.

Nathaniel Curtis and Tut Nyuot (Credits: David Reiss; Above and Beyond Photography)

While their roles are currently unknown to us, our best guess for Curtis would be Eades, a military commander. His role description is the following:

“A high-ranking commander, hailing from a military family. Described as strong, cold and calculating and able to take on many different guises. He hides his male lovers from court, fearing that his emotional attachments may be used against him. Appears in 5 episodes.”


The Witcher: Blood Origin is expected to start filming this August. It is set in an elven world 1200 years before the events of the main Witcher show. For updates on all things Witcher, follow Redanian Intelligence on Twitter.

8 comments on “The Witcher prequel casts lead character’s sister and more”

  1. are there going to be any white people? I know there were only people of color in medieval europe… according to whoever is running this
    i hope that white people are not gonna be only villains because that would be some sick jewish dream.
    I mean season 2 trailer has barely any views, I am not sure if that direction is gonna make anything good out of Andrzej Sapkowski’s work. All those W- BO news look like – watch what have we done to your work and you can do nothing about it. it is just sad, it is gonna be about racism and nothing more, the writing was atrocious, Hnery cannot carry this on his shoulders forever

      1. Netflix has also done stranger things, that Spanish bank series, house of cards (the last one was actually screaming for diversity, but it is whiter than mayonnaise).

        There is a lot of talented people there. The actors in the article – they are pretty and handsome and look really fine. I think the problem is in writing room which managed to dumb down one of the best pieces on modern fantasy. I am just worried about blood origin as they have no source material.
        in terms of season 2 of witcher I can clearly see upgrade in production value, problem with the show is that it is very inconsistent. You want black people – ok, just merge Nilfgaard and Zerrikania, they are from south, they can look like middle east or Africa. but for God’s sake be consistent with you choices. Otherwise – Daro and Eels my friends.

  2. I have high hopes for Season 2. Thought casting was pretty solid, and they now have a linear structure for the story instead of trying to cobble several standalone stories together. However, this prequel show sounds like it could be a mess. Are there any true references for them to base all these characters on or they just making up a ton of stuff? Definitely the least interesting idea in the Witcher-verse.

  3. So, because it’s fantasy it doesn’t have to follow/represent the Slavic culture it’s rooted in, but it has to represent modern day America, OK.

    1. That’s the stupidest argument.. why not just throw in some flying rainbow cats, and and few pink cows in high heels here and there, oh and there should be cute little fairies in flower-dresses too, because, hey it’s fantasy!!

      Fantasy without a well constructed, coherent/consistent world is just a f*cking brainfart, like this show seems to be so far. A good fantasy has explanation to pretty much everything, even to magic. When you throw different races all over the place, and mix them, that’s not fantasy that’s modern day USA. If „it’s fantasy“, why does it have to be that way then? It’s even more stupid, given how in the world of the Witcher the different races distrust each other.
      If you have different races, even if they’re just a „different looking version“ of an other, give them background, an origin, or explain how does a green dude and a purple woman have yellow children, and why everybody else is red around them.
      Unless you aim for little children.. which I bet is not the case here..

      There is nothing wrong with including different people, but do it in a smart, meaningful way, and not just in a „what ever“ kind of way, because you have to meet a quota..

  4. As has been remarked earlier, even from a modern day US perspective, the casting is not inclusive, because it overly represents actors of color (of largely African origin) compared to their part of the population. In contrast, people with other background that also form part of the US population, like of Asian-Chinese origin, aren’t represented by the cast at all (apart from Michelle Yeoh in the future, perhaps). The showrunners may have their motivations for choosing a large number of actors of color, but I am not sure if that makes the show more popular among the audience, even in the US. It is even likely that audiences elsewhere (Europe, Asia) will feel alienated by a cast that appears chosen as if to educate the spectators on political correctness, and doesn’t seem to fit in a medieval European setting, even if fantastic. But I wonder who would want to watch „Blood Origin“ anyway. Given that it is written by Declan de Barra who hasn’t done a great job on the Witcher show so far, and considering the mass of similar fantasy format shows that are emerging on the streaming market, I doubt that there would be a large audience longing for that show. The Witcher show is set for some success because the book material is decent and the games have made it widely popular. Yet, there is always the chance of alienating the audience. Perhaps it even gets scrapped before the book material runs out.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.