Candid photos from the set of The Witcher Season 4 give fans their first glimpse of Laurence Fishburne in costume as Regis. The actor looked the part in a picture published by Redanian Intelligence earlier this summer, though this get-up is a far cry from Morpheus or any of his other iconic roles. The photo even gave enough context clues for fans of the books and video games to guess which scene he was filming.
Fishburne joins the cast of The Witcher in full medieval regalia – a green jerkin with leather trip and a mess of buckles and matching green pants with knee-high leather boots, over a billowing shirt with ruffled sleeves. His hair is styled into a jaunty mess with thick sideburns and one wide streak of gray at the top. He certainly looks the part as Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy – a mysterious new character joining Geralt’s adventure this season – even if the character has not been depicted with dark skin before.
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Netflix announced that Fishburne was joining the cast of The Witcher back in January, and fans were surprised that such an accomplished actor was coming in so late in the game. Regis is not introduced until the sixth Witcher novel by Andrzej Sapkowski, though he is important to the story going forward. Additionally, the video game adaptations by CD Projekt Red have made Regis a fan-favorite. In some ways, that seems to be playing against Fishburne in comment sections, where some fans are still angry that he doesn’t look like the Regis they’ve seen in games.
Many also speculate that Fishburne was brought in to add some star power to a show that will need it this season. Up until now, The Witcher has starred Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, but Cavill left the series at the end of Season 3. The main character will now be played by Liam Hemsworth going forward, and fans are curious to see how this transition will go. While Geralt is the main protagonist, he is, in many ways a stoic perspective – not static, but slow to change. That means characters like Ciri (Freya Allen), Yennefer (Anya Cholatra) and even Jaskier (Joey Batey) carry some of the series’ more emotional beats, and they will all be able to finish the show in their respective roles. Bringing in stars like Fishburne for the supporting characters is definitely icing on the cake.
The Witcher is streaming now on Netflix, along with a prequel series and a prequel animated film. Sapkowski’s novels are available in print, digital and audiobook formats. Season 4 has no release date yet, but fans are expecting an announcement from Netflix very soon.
