By The Witcher‘s fifth and season is currently filming in the United Kingdom, with Liam Hemsworth replacing Henry Cavill in the titular role. The recasting of Geralt of Rivia has sparked heated debates and controversy, but what few people may realize is that this was hardly the first time the Netflix series replaced one actor with another. Here’s every role ever recast in Netflix’s The Witcher, in chronological order.
Freya Allan was cast as Marilka before becoming Ciri
Freya Allan‘s casting process was highly irregular. At first, she was one of the leading candidates for the starring role of Princess Ciri. In an interview with Collider, Allan recounted the disappointing phone call where she was told she would not be cast as Ciri:
“My mum got this email saying that the studio was wanting to go in a different direction in terms of the way [Ciri] looked, so I wasn’t that. It kind of broke my heart because I thought I was perfect for it, you know?“
While Netflix had initially passed on Allan for the role of Ciri, they were not ready to give up on the talented young actress, so they offered her another role instead: Marilka, the alderman’s daughter in the town of Blaviken who appeared in the show’s first episode.
Allan told Collider: “The casting people really liked me, and they were like, ‘We still want you in the show, so will you come and audition for this other character?’ So I did, and then they told me I got it.“
Meanwhile, The Witcher‘s casting team changed their minds regarding Ciri once more, and Freya Allan was approached. “My mum showed up at my school one day, and instantly I knew, ‘They’ve changed their minds. They want to see me.’ I instantly knew. I was like, ‘Why has she showed up at my school?’ And she did, she came up to me, and she was like, ‘Freya, I’ve just got a call from your agent, and they want you to come in tomorrow for the role of Ciri. I just had to tell you! I had to come and pick you up and tell you,’ because she knew how much it had meant to me, and she’d been so supportive along the way. So yeah, I went in for Ciri again. I was up against one other person, and they gave me a big hug in the audition room, and I was like, ‘I feel like I got it.’ But then I had to wait, still, for it to all be confirmed, and then I found out the day before my birthday. It was amazing.”
After Allan locked the role of Ciri, the role of Marilka was reopened for casting. The young actress who eventually secured this role was Rebecca Benson, who joined Henry Cavill to film scenes set in the town of Blaviken as The Witcher‘s Season 1 production kicked off. But the casting drama did not end there.
After most of Season 1 was already filmed, The Witcher‘s showrunner and Netflix executives were not confident in the original cut of the show’s premiere episode. A decision was made to completely rework the episode’s Blaviken scenes, and due to some scheduling issues and possibly a desire to start fresh with new actors, many of the episode’s roles were recast. One of the roles recast was Marilka, and Benson was replaced by young actress Mia McKenna-Bruce.
Before Emma Appleton, The Last Kingdom‘s Millie Brady was Renfri
Marilka wasn’t the only role recast in The Witcher‘s pilot episode. In fact, there were many roles recast in the Blaviken storyline as it was reworked from the ground up. Originally filmed by director Alik Sakharov, the pilot placed Henry Cavill’s Geralt (before Cavill had found Geralt’s voice and before his hair stylists found the right look for Geralt’s wig) opposite to The Last Kingdom star Millie Brady.
Brady was cast in the role of the exiled princess Renfri, who was hunting down Lars Mikkelsen’s mage Stregobor to avenge the life he had deprived of her. Renfri had gathered a gang of outlaws to attack and kill Stregobor, including Shane Attwooll as Nohorn, Luke Neal as Vyr, and Matthew Neal as Nimir. Brady’s Renfri had a book-accurate costume with short blonde hair.
The entire episode was filmed and ready to go, but showrunner Lauren Hissrich and Netflix executives were not confident in the original cut. This may be due to Geralt’s look and voice not being settled yet during the filming of the episode, because the episode was just not working as the showrunner had hoped it would, or a combination of these two reasons.
In the last leg of filming for The Witcher Season 1, Netflix held extensive reshoots which would re-film most of Geralt’s scenes, and a new cast would join him. Besides Lars Mikkelsen’s Stregobor, all the characters in Blaviken were recast.
This includes the previously mentioned Marilka, but also Renfri and her entire gang. The new Renfri was played by Emma Appleton, who managed to steal the show in the final cut of the episode. Renfri’s gang was mostly replaced with stuntmen who were not actors, and the only gang member recast with a speaking role was Nohorn, who was portrayed by Packy Lee in the reshoots. On top of the ones previously mentioned, Hungarian actor Attila Arpa played the Blaviken innkeeper before John Cummins was cast for the reshoots.
Though the final cut of The Witcher‘s premiere episode is considered to be quite great by fans, some are still wondering what the original episode was like. Some have even called on Netflix to “Release the Sakharov Cut”.
Season 1’s Ronin Mage was originally going to be the Night King actor from Game of Thrones
One original storyline in Season 1’s fourth episode placed a young princess and her baby daughter in the care of Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer. The sorceress was tasked with protecting the nobles as they were pursued by a Ronin Mage played by Polish actor Marcin Czarnik.
As it turned out, costume designer Tim Aslam revealed that the role was originally given to the actor Richard Brake. Brake is famous for portraying the villainous ice zombie, the Night King, in HBO’s Game of Thrones. Brake had done a costume fitting for the character, and pictures of him in costume were depicted in Aslam’s website. For unknown reasons, Blake was replaced by Czarnik before these scenes were filmed.
Eskel’s actor was recast due to COVID rescheduling
The Witcher‘s first season had quite a few recastings, particularly for reshoots of the Blaviken scenes, and this trend of replacing roles midway into production would continued into Season 2. Before production kicked off on the second season, it was announced that Thue Ersted Rasmussen would portray the witcher Eskel.
Thue was excited for the role, even posting about his Leshy costume fittings as the Netflix series was completing its pre-production and preparing for filming. As far as we know, Thue did manage to film one or two weeks as Eskel. Then, the unexpected happened as the COVID19 Coronavirus took the world by storm.
Plans changed, schedules were reshuffled, and entire countries entered containment lockdowns as traveling and flights were restricted. The COVID19 craze unfolded a month into the filming of Season 2, and Thue had not yet filmed most of his scenes. The announcement came in his social media accounts: “Sadly, due to the rescheduling because of Covid-19, I will not be portraying Eskel in The Witcher. It’s heartbreaking, of course, but I mostly feel happy and grateful for the days I got to spend on set earlier this year.”
Once again, the Netflix casting team had to quickly find a replacement for a key role ahead of filming. It was crucial to cast Eskel ahead of filming the second episode, in which he turns into a Leshy in Kaer Morhen. It was later announced that Basil Eidenbenz was cast as the new Eskel.
There were two King Henselts in one season
In Season 2, there were a couple of scenes that featured the Kings and Queen of the Northern Kingdoms. The first of these scenes was a great gathering for the execution of Eamon Farren’s Cahir. Cahir was to be executed by Anya Chalotra’s sorceress and suspected traitor Yennefer, while the kings and nobles of the North watched. One of them was King Henselt, known to book and game fans alike as the redoubtable and somewhat warmongering ruler of Kaedwen. In this scene, Henselt was portrayed by Swedish actor Magnus Samuelsson.
Henselt appeared in another scene in the Season 2 finale, in which Tissaia held a meeting with the Northern kings to discuss Cirilla of Cintra. In this meeting, Henselt was recast and Cornish actor Edward Rowe took over where Samuelsson left off. Seeing as Samuelsson, like Eskel’s Thue Ersted Rasmussen, was not a UK resident, it’s possible the recast occurred due to COVID scheduling issues.
By the time the role was recast, the large-scale sequence in which Yennefer saves Cahir from execution could not be re-filmed just to switch out Henselt’s actor, as that would require a return to the location with many of the other actors present in Henselt’s scenes. Because Henselt’s role in the sequence was small and would likely go unnoticed, it was decided to complete the recast silently and so two actors with different looks portrayed Henselt in the same season. Unlike the Geralt situation, there was no attempt to explain this transition and most viewers did not notice it.
There was another Geralt recasting, before Liam Hemsworth
Prior to the recasting of the main Geralt, there was another cast change, but with Young Geralt. In the Season 1 finale, we saw a flashback of young Geralt and his mother Visenna. Then young Geralt was played by actor Tristan Ruggeri.
Season 2 also had a Young Geralt flashback filmed, but set in Kaer Morhen with Young Geralt, Young Vesemir and even Vesemir’s mentor Deglan. Young Geralt was played by Alexander Squires this time, while Young Vesemir and Deglan were portrayed by James Baxter and Tamer Hassan respectively.
Almost all of those flashbacks were cut with only a few extremely quick shots of Geralt and Vesemir remaining, and Deglan’s scenes cut completely.
Yarpen Zigrin’s gang also had replacements
Back in the first season, Yarpen’s gang of warrior dwarves consisted of Lucas Corto, Xavier Moran and Yannick Brass. They were played by Simeon Dyer, Michael Keane and Kain Francis.
None of the original actors returned in Season 2 and much like Renfri’s gang, they were replaced by professional stuntmen in the new episodes.
Blood Origin’s lead role, Eile, was also recast
The Witcher‘s recasting troubles carried over into its prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin. The prequel suffered a delay in production likely because of COVID19-era scheduling issues. This delay led to the recasting of the show’s lead role, Eile “The Lark”, the elven singer and warrior of the Raven clan.
Jodie Turner-Smith who was originally cast in the role announced that she had to step down due to scheduling conflicts with her other projects. Soon after, we uncovered Turner-Smith’s replacement, Sophia Brown. Brown was announced shortly after as the official replacement for Eile, and the show entered production.
Brown was not the only actress recast in Blood Origin, as the same thing happened with the role of Aevenien, the mother of elven prophetess Ithlinne. Originally, Claire Cooper was attached to the role ahead of filming, but when the show dropped on Netflix it was Kerri Quinn who portrayed the character.
Cooper does appear at the very end of the show, posting contracts for a witcher, but credited as a random villager instead, while during filming that was meant to be Ithlinne’s mother. That scene was filmed in Iceland, so we can see why the show wouldn’t fly Quinn there just for that one shot.
The show’s iconic villain Rience was recast due to scheduling issues
It’s not just heroes and kings who got recast in The Witcher‘s over-arching casting challenges. A major villain introduced in Season 2, the fiery mage Rience, was the first of two major recasts in Season 3. Portrayed in Season 2 by Chris Fulton, the actor could not resolve scheduling conflicts and had to drop out of the third season.
Fulton was quietly replaced by fellow actor Sam Woolf. The recasting of this iconic role went initially unnoticed by the fanbase as behind-the-scenes images of the new Rience were revealed, but eventually, the news was out.
The Dryad Queen Eithne was also recast
The Dryad Queen Eithne was introduced in Season 1 as the leader of the Dryads of Brokilon Forest, a group of female warrior ladies who are fantastical creatures based on Greek mythology. Stage actress Josette Simon was tapped for the role, and the British actress took to the Canary Islands where the Brokilon scenes were filmed.
Though the dryads already had interesting, nature-inspired costumes in Season 1, a common critique was that they still appeared too human. Season 3 gave the dryads a re-design, alongside a major recasting for the role of Eithne. Though the reasons for this recasting are unknown, Lorna Brown was cast as Eithne in Season 3 and given a brand new, more fantastical costume with make-up and prosthetics.
There was also a Crach an Craite recast
Back in the first season, during Calanthe’s feast, we saw Crach an Craite among the Skelligan crowd. He was one of the suitors for Pavetta’s hand. In Season 1, Crach was played by Scottish actor Blair Kincaid.
When we saw Crach again in Season 3, he was different. Now he was played by Icelandic actor Johannes Haukur Johannesson. The reasons for this recasting are unknown as well. Perhaps once again a scheduling issue.
Liam Hemsworth replaces Henry Cavill as Geralt
The biggest and most surprising recasting of the show was, of course, the recasting of Geralt of Rivia. There has been a lot of speculation regarding the events that led to Cavill taking leave from the show starting with Season 4, but now we’re looking ahead as Liam Hemsworth has begun filming the final two seasons of The Witcher that will conclude the series.
Unlike the other recastings, which were handled by quietly replacing the actors and carrying on without addressing the change, The Witcher will handle Geralt’s recasting quite differently. By covering a complex, meta-storyline featured in the novels, the show will explain how and why Geralt looks different than before. For more details on how Season 4 will handle this transition, take at a look at our article linked below.
READ MORE: The Witcher Filming Liam Hemsworth’s First Scene in Season 4
Vesemir has been recast as well
As we learned during the production of The Witcher Season 4, Vesemir would be returning in the upcoming season along with Lambert and Coen. The younger witchers are still played by Paul Bullion and Zates Atour, but sadly Kim Bodnia won’t be returning as Vesemir.
Bodnia’s representatives commented on the situation a little later: “Kim will not return as Vesemir as his current shooting diary didn’t fit in with Netflix’s shooting schedule of The Witcher Season 4.“
Now who is playing the new Vesemir? That we haven’t found out yet, but hopefully eventually we will. Back in Season 2, initial offers for the role of Vesemir were made to Mark Hamill, Mads Mikkelsen and Michael Keaton, who all passed on the role.
In total, we have about 19 or so cases of recasting in the first four seasons of Netflix’s The Witcher that we know of. Will there be more? We’ll find out eventually.
The Witcher Season 4 is has been out since October 30, 2025. 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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