The Witcher: Blood Origin has cast action and fantasy genre veteran Michelle Yeoh to play a new character in the Netflix original series. According to a report by Deadline, Yeoh will play Scian, a warrior elf in the ancient world of The Witcher. She and Laurence O’Fuarain are the only two cast members confirmed for the series.
The Witcher: Blood Origin is set about 1,200 years before the events of the main series. It will depict the magical cataclysm known as “The Conjunction of the Spheres,” which brought monsters into The Continent for the first time, as well as the creation of the Witchers themselves. That means that there likely won’t be many familiar characters to draw fans into the prequel, but from the sound of it, Yeoh’s character Scian will become a fan favorite fast.
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According to the description from Netflix, “Scian is the very last of her nomadic tribe of sword-elves. No one can come close to her artistry with the blade, and no one carries as much loss within their heart. When a chance presents itself to retrieve a stolen sacred sword, taken from her fallen tribe by nefarious means, she launches herself into a deadly quest that will change the outcome of the Continent.”
The Witcher: Blood Origins will be a six-part limited series, designed to depict a very specific part of this fictional world’s history. It is written by Declan de Barra, a writer on The Witcher Season 1, who will also executive produce the series. De Barra is working with The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who is also an executive producer, and of course, the whole franchise is based on the writings of Polish novelist Andrzej Sapkowski.
Yeoh is a fitting addition to the franchise, with plenty of experience in the epic fantasy and action genres through roles in films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and TV shows like Marco Polo and Star Trek: Discovery. She is even a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing Jiang Nan in the upcoming comic book adaptation Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Updates on Blood Origin have been scarce, and so far there is no release date for the limited series in place. The Witcher Season 2 is expected to premiere in the fourth quarter of 2021, and the animated film The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is expected soon as well. For now, you can check out the source material novels here in print, digital and audiobook formats, and watch the first season of the TV now on Netflix.