If you’ve been wondering who the female leads would be in Netflix’s ‘The Witcher,‘ you no longer have to! Freya Allan (‘Into the Badlands’) and Anya Chalotra (‘Wanderlust,’ ‘The ABC Murders’) are now set to tackle the roles of Ciri and Yennefer who are the two female leads from the novels.
Those familiar with the novels and video games will instantly recognize these two as central characters to the plot of the upcoming story. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich is really getting everything together, and we’re eager to see the series get into production to start seeing some promotional images as well as the first trailer for the series. That being said, we’re likely a long way off for any video to be released unless someone records and leaks something from the set.
For those who don’t know much about the series, Ciri is the young princess of one of the kingdoms, Cintra, that the story takes place in. On the other hand, Yennefer is the love interest of Henry Cavill‘s Geralt of Rivia and a sorceress. She ends up becoming a mother figure to Ciri as well when the story develops.
On the importance of these two characters, Hissrich explains:
“Yeah, what’s interesting is the first couple books are told from Geralt’s perspective, and when I was reading them I saw that there are all these other characters who are very strong and powerful; not just the women, by the way. They can be pulled to the forefront, so it doesn’t always feel like just Geralt’s journey, because the journey of one man is never going to be very interesting. It’s only going to be as interesting as the people he interacts with. That’s why these characters are rising in prominence in the series.”
While Cavill is a big name in the acting world, both Allan and Chalotra are fairly new. Hissrich shares that it wasn’t really a factor in who to cast:
“Not specifically, 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. It comes down to the best actor for the role. Henry’s obviously a big fan of the franchise. We met in early April and had a very general meeting. I then went off and met with hundreds of other candidates for Geralt and never really got Henry out of my mind. In casting Anya and Freya, the cool thing was we were open to anyone and both of them, to me, embody the spirits of the characters.”
Allan and Chalotra will be joining a cast which also includes Jodhi May (‘Game of Thrones’,’Genius’), Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson (‘Fortitude’), Adam Levy (‘Knightfall,’ ‘Snatch’), MyAnna Buring, Mimi Ndiweni, Therica Wilson-Read, and Millie Brady.
Are you excited to see progress being made in casting for Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’? Did you have any actresses in mind for either of these two roles before casting was announced? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
The Witcher Geralt, a mutated monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
