By Fans of The Witcher are eagerly awaiting the return of Henry Cavill’s Geralt to the screen in December. Meanwhile, the live-action prequel series ‘Blood Origin‘, starring Michelle Yeoh, Sophia Brown and Laurence O’Fuarain is well underway. Production has recently moved to Yorkshire, where the team is filming a large battle scene.
Blood Origin takes place roughly 1200 years before Geralt’s time and while we’ve known about the setting for a long time, many are still wondering how it will fit into the greater history of the series. Today we’ve got several new cast additions, including one that may shine some light on how Blood Origin ties in with the main show.
The oracle’s mother?
To get the most intriguing one out of the way first: We’ve learned that British actress Claire Cooper will play the role of Aevenin. Cooper is known for her roles in such projects as Knightfall, Hollyoaks and Snatch.
If you’re thinking the name Aevenin sounds familiar it may be because there is an obscure character with a similar name mentioned in Andrzej Sapkowski’s books: Aevenien, mother of the legendary elven seeress Ithlinne, whose full name reads Ithlinne aegli aep Aevenien (daughter of Aevenien).
While readers of the books obviously know all about Ithlinne and her importance to the story, show watchers will get to know her in Season 2, where she is played by veteran actress Ann Firbank.
Her mother Aevenien is one of those characters that is only ever mentioned in the books but as far as we are concerned, the names are too similar to be a mere coincidence. Does that mean we’ll get to see a younger Ithlinne in Blood Origin too? It’s certainly a strong possibility, especially if the writers aim to establish a connection to the main show.
A trio joins the Witcher family
To round up the update we can also share that three more actors have joined the cast in different roles.
Natasha Patel (Dr Who, Emmerdale) plays a character called Pyren in an episode directed by Vicky Jewson. While we can’t say much else about the role, recent activity suggest she may have interacted with cast members Huw Novelli (Brother Death) and Zach Wyatt (Syndril).
Recent drama school graduate Sabrina Basilé will appear as an Elven Singer, also in an episode directed by Vicky Jewson (thanks to our reader Jonas Jakobsen for this one). Basilé has a dedicated focus on musical work, having previously appeared in various musicals and stage plays at Mountview Drama School.
Actor Oliver Asante (Crimewatch, Bad Things) is also among the recent Blood Origin additions we uncovered. From what we can tell, he is either expected to join the cast soon or has already started filming. We don’t know his role yet, but we’ll update you accordingly once we find out more.
The Witcher: Blood Origin is expected to debut sometime in 2022, likely in between seasons 2 and 3 of The Witcher. Stay tuned for more casting and filming news!
