Your favorite bard from The Witcher is coming to the prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin. At the CCXP convention in São Paulo, Brazil on Saturday, December 3, Netflix unveiled its trailer and key art for Blood Origin, revealing that fan-favorite Joey Batey will star as Jaskier in the four-part event series. (Jaskier is the traveling bard behind The Witcher’s viral song “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher.”)
“Set in an elven world 1,200 years before the world of The Witcher, Blood Origin will tell a story lost to time — the creation of the first prototype Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal conjunction of the spheres, when the world of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one,” Netflix says in a synopsis of the upcoming series.
The key art for Blood Origin shows our three heroes: Sophia Brown (Marcella) and Laurence O’Fuarain (Vikings) as Éile and Fjall, two warriors estranged from their opposing clans, and Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) as Scían, a sword master who’s the last of her tribe.
The trailer, meanwhile, introduces us to Lenny Henry’s character, Chief Sage Balor. “I’ve taken control of the entire continent,” Balor says in the clip. “Faced with chaos, the people will always choose order, no matter the cost.”
Netflix
That order, however, is upset by monoliths that are “causing tears between worlds,” as one character says, and new threats emerge through these gateways.
The trailer ends with Minnie Driver’s Seanchaí character meeting with Jaskier. “You’re a bard, I’m a storyteller,” she says. “I need you to sing a story back to life.”
“Are you sure you’ve got the right man for this?” he responds.
The Blood Origin cast also includes Mirren Mack as Princess Merwyn, Francesca Mills as Meldof, Zach Wyatt and Lizzie Annis as celestial twin sages Syndril and Zacaré, and Huw Novelli as Brother Death.
Other supporting cast members include Amy Murray as chief sage Balor’s apprentice Fenrik, Mark Rowley as King Alvitir, Daniel Fathers and Faoileann Cunningham as clan chieftain Osfar and his daughter Ryl, Kim Adis as Merwyn’s handmaid Ket, Nathaniel Curtis as Brían, Dylan Moran as Uthrok One-Nut, and Ella Schrey-Yeats and Claire Cooper as the young prophet Ithlinne and her mother Aevenien.
The Witcher: Blood Origin, 4-Part Special Event Premiere, Sunday, December 25, Netflix