By With filming concluded earlier this month, The Witcher‘s third season is now in post-production. That being said, there are still a few tidbits of information we have leftover from filming, particularly regarding the ever-expanding cast of the Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan series.
Let’s dive in and see what we have.
Jaskier may meet his match in Valdo Marx?
First off, we had our sights on comedian and singer Josh Weller, who we believe has been on set for filming during season three’s pivotal Thanedd sequence. While we haven’t been able to confirm that, we have one educated guess who he could be playing. If we are correct, Josh Weller perfectly fits the profile to portray Jaskier’s greatest rival, the bard Valdo Marx.
Redanian Intelligence readers will remember an old audition video of the character we now know is Prince Radovid of Redania. During that audition, Radovid is speaking to the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey) and mentions the bard Valdo Marx: “If you came to Renovia, you could be our royal troubadour. Otherwise we might have to listen to that reedy voice of Valdo Marx [codenamed Victor Marius]. Just think about it, would you?”
READ MORE: The Witcher Season 3 audition tape suggests more political intrigue involving Jaskier
At the time, we weren’t convinced that his mention in the audition script necessarily implied the character would appear in the show, but we took note of it for future reference. Now it seems Valdo may indeed appear in the show, most likely during the Thanedd ball. If we are correct, we expect to see a fun confrontation between Valdo and Jaskier during the ball. Can we hope for a Continent-styled rap battle or a bard-off?
The Dryad Queen Eithne may have been recast for Season 3
Our second casting tidbit for today is not something we were able to confirm at this point. However, given what we’ve gleaned from our usual sources, it’s looking rather likely. From what we can tell, actress Lorna Brown (Vampire Academy, Devils, Hard Cell) was around multiple cast and crew during the filming of the Brokilon scenes. With that in mind, we believe Brown will portray a dryad in season three.
One piece of speculation discussed by the Redanian Intelligence team is that Brown may actually have been cast in the role of the dryad queen Eithne, replacing season one’s Josette Simon. The main reasons for this speculation is that Brown is an established actress with too much experience for a minor role such as a random dryad in the background, and we did not hear of Simon’s return to the set in season three.
However, it’s possible that Simon was able to reach the set unnoticed and return to the role of Eithne, leaving a different role for Brown. Regarding that, time will tell.
And more casting tidbits…
In addition to the two significant roles mentioned above, we were also able to uncover several more actors involved in the filming of season three, probably in smaller roles.
First off, we have two new cast members with confirmed roles. Harrison Daniels (Bloods) will portray Newbury, and Cal Watson (Eastenders, Britannia) will portray Eva. In both cases, these seem to be original characters who will probably appear briefly to support other characters’ storylines. Both Newbury and Eva could very well be codenames as well.
We can confirm that Watson’s Eva will appear in episodes directed by Gandja Monteiro and Bola Ogun, who direct the third and fourth and the seventh and eighth episodes respectively.
The next few cast members we will discuss have unconfirmed roles. Connor Crawford (Glitch) seems to have been on set during the filming of the Rats scenes, so we believe he is the final Rat we hadn’t found back in our earlier report.
Our guess would be that Crawford may portray Asse, while Ash Rizi and Ben Radcliffe could be Giselher and Kayleigh. Keep in mind this is just speculation.
Another cast member, whose role is yet unconfirmed is Tracy-Ann Oberman (Doctor Who, After Life). If we were to guess her role, it would be the character codenamed ‘Hampstead’ who could turn out to be Queen Hedwig of Redania and wife to King Vizimir played by Ed Birch.
‘Hampstead’ was one of the ten characters on the season three casting breakdown uncovered by The Illuminerdi before filming began and has yet to be identified among the season three cast.
In the casting breakdown, the character was described as “a middle-aged married woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who is more like her child than her husband. Though she inhabits courtly life, her opinions more often than not fall on deaf ears.“
Oberman could also be playing a character codenamed ‘Archway’, who as far as we can tell from the audition is a healer that may be involved in a subplot featuring Mahesh Jadu‘s Vilgefortz.
READ MORE: The Witcher Season 3 May Expand On a Dark Storyline Hinted in the Books
Another actor we have attached to season three of the Netflix series is Nathan Armakwei Laryea (Doctor Who, Panorama), who was on set during the filming of the action sequence on Thanedd.
Lastly, we have also learned that Darrel Davy (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) and Matt Jay-Willis (Birds of a Feather) will appear in the show, and your guess as to their roles is as good as ours.
Season 3 of The Witcher is in post-production for a Summer 2023 release. The live-action prequel The Witcher: Blood Origin has been set a Christmas 2022 release. Stay tuned to Redanian Intelligence and do pop into our Discord server to join in on The Witcher conversation.
