By Last year it was announced that Doug Cockle, the iconic voice of Geralt in The Witcher games would reprise his role in The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s A Little Sacrifice. In a new interview with Behind the Voice, Doug discusses the new project, the challenges he faced with it and more.
Doug Cockle on The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep
In the new interview Cockle also shared some glimpses into the process of Sirens of the Deep: “I was pleased to be asked by Netflix to voice Geralt for the animated film. I wasn’t expecting that at all because I was expecting a certain other person who is associated with Netflix, the live-action Witcher.
So it was completely out of the blue, but I was very happy and I said yes straight away because any chance to play Geralt is a good thing for me and I enjoy it so much.“
He also commented earlier, in an IGN interview: “I have spent a long afternoon recording for The Witcher anime. I don’t know if I’m done or if there’s more to come, but we recorded quite a lot, so I think we’ll have to wait and see what happens. There may be some pickups later on. There may be additional lines.“
Doug Cockle on recording Mer-speech for Sirens of the Deep
Another thing Doug revealed in the new interview was his process of recording the Mer-speech lines, the way Geralt would communicate with the mer-folk.
“I did the voice. The voice isn’t hard for me to do, it’s just part of my vocal range now. But what I did find challenging, I had to try to speak in mer-speak. They created this whole language for the mer-people and I had to try and speak mer-language as Geralt and it was really hard! Because the mer-speech is very sing-songy, very melodic and Geralt isn’t particularly melodic.“
Cockle continued about the recording sessions: “So I was working with the director, trying to get Geralt sound like he was doing mer-speech. I can’t wait to see what it ends up sounding like. In the end we kind of agreed that Geralt may not be very good at speaking mer-speech so I think that’s where we’re gonna be at. Geralt struggling to speak a language he doesn’t actually speak very well.“
Doug Cockle weighs in on the Netflix Witcher adaptation
Asked about the deviations the Netflix series took in the first three seasons, Doug gave his answer: “I think we have to give different mediums their space. The Netflix show is a different medium from the games, which is a different medium from the books. […] It’s gotta have room to be its own thing.“
He continued about the writing choices made by the Netflix writers: “There were choices that were made in the writers’ room that I don’t understand. I don’t know why they made those choices and I’d love to have a chat with some of the writers about why those choices were made just so I can intellectually understand why.
Because if you look at something like The Las of Us, it followed the game very very closely with some minor alterations and it worked wonderfully and fans of the games loved it and that’s all good. The Netflix Witcher series had not only the books, they also had the games, which reinterpreted the books a bit, and the comic books, which also reinterpreted the books a little bit. You gotta give them some room to grow to be who they wanna be.
Cockle went on to describe his own watching experience: “I enjoyed Witcher Season 1, though it took me ages to catch on to the time jumping. […] I really enjoyed it. Then Season 2 and Season 3 started to go down paths I didn’t fully understand. I didn’t lose interest, but I started going “I need to restructure how I’m thinking about this show because it’s not doing what I expected it to do and I’m disliking that and perhaps I shouldn’t. I should watch it and judge it on its own merits and leave the games and books over to the side.“
Finally, Doug Cockle said he’ll get into Season 4 with a fresh mindset: “I think [Liam Hemsworth] is gonna be good. I think he’s gonna do a good job, but I think also because of the reaction I had to the Witcher TV series, which was forget about the games and the books, I wanna do that with Liam as well in Season 4. I just wanna go in cold and say “Hey, what are they gonna give us?”
Watch the full interview here:
The Witcher Season 5 is in post-production for a 2026 release. Andrzej Sapkowski’s new Witcher book Crossroads of Ravens is available internationally since September 30, 2025. CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 4 is now in full production.
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