Freya Allen will play Ciri and Anya Chalotra will play Yennefer in Netflix’s forthcoming The Witcher collection. The two relative newcomers will be part of Superman star Henry Cavill, who performs protagonist Geralt of Rivia.
Numerous lesser roles have additionally been forged. Jodhi May (Game of Thrones, Genius) will play Queen Calanthe; Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson (Fortitude) is her husband, the knight Eist; Adam Levy (Knightfall, Snatch) performs Mousesack the druid; MyAnna Buring is the top of the magical academy at Aretuza, Tissaia; Mimi Ndiweni and Therica Wilson-Read will play a pair of novice sorcerers; and Millie Brady is the outcast Princess Renfri.
The bulletins come through showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissirch in a brand new interview with the Hollywood Reporter. She says she wasn’t “specifically” on the lookout for lesser-known actors for these roles, “nor were we looking for a movie star when we cast Henry. We’re looking for the best actors for these roles. Period. End of story.”
Hissirch says the casting for Ciri was particularly exhaustive: “we ended up seeing over 200 young women from all over Europe”, however that “we knew it right away” when she met Allen.
That interview additionally discusses the fan backlash Hissirch has obtained on quite a few events, none extra so than when a casting name final month requested for black and minority ethnic actresses to play Ciri.
I could not be extra thrilled about our ever-growing #Witcher household. Anya, Freya, and the remainder of this jaw-dropping forged will slay monsters, your hearts, and the whole lot else we put in entrance of them. https://t.co/gHkhf1mQlw
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) October 10, 2018
“The fans really have pictures of these characters in their minds and I don’t blame them for that. I get it,” says Hissirch, of the controversy. “I think coming in as a writer and saying my vision might look different than yours is scary for fans, but truthfully I don’t think it has to be. One of the things I feel most strongly about is people being afraid that we’re going to strip out the cultural context of The Witcher, to remove its Slavic roots, the very thing people in Poland are proud of. That couldn’t be further from the truth. What I’ve always wanted to do is take these Slavic stories and give them a global audience.”
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