Netflix’s Witcher series has officially found its female leads. Joining Henry Cavill as Geralt are Freya Allan (The War of the Worlds, Bluebird) as Ciri, and Anya Chalotra (Wanderlust, The ABC Murders) as Yennefer.
The two actresses are smaller names compared to Cavill, but are taking on important roles. Ciri is the princess of a kingdom central to the plot, and later on becomes Geralt’s daughter figure. Yennefer is a powerful sorceress and Geralt’s primary love interest.
The Witcher is a popular fantasy series by polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which has been made into a successful video game franchise developed by CD Projekt Red.
Though various comic books, tabletop games and Polish-language film adaptations of the Witcher series exist, the video games have certainly become the primary visual representation of the characters to an audience outside of Eastern Europe. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich said, however, that while she’s a fan of the games, this Netflix series will be its own adaptation of the Witcher world, not reliant or specifically based on the game.
“We needed to create our own visual representation,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “As I’ve been developing the series I’ve actually pulled back from playing the video games because I wanted to make sure the show we were creating was its own unique thing.”
She added that production is set to kick off soon. There is no set premiere date for Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher.
Also joining the cast are Jodhi May (Game of Thrones) as Queen Calanthe, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson (Fortitude) as Eist, Adam Levy (Knightfall) as Mousesack, MyAnna Burig (Ripper Street) as Tissaia, (Black Earth Rising) as Fringella, Therica Wilson-Read (Profile) as Sabrina, and Millie Brady (The Last Kingdom) as outcast Princess Renfri.