Netflix is moving full steam ahead on a second season of its fantasy series The Witcher. And even though
Season 2 isn’t expected to drop until 2021, we already have an idea of the new actors joining the cast next time.
From a fan-favorite Game of Thrones alum to a new character never seen in the books or the games, here are all the new actors and characters debuting in The Witcher: Season 2, along with a recap of all the characters introduced so far. Beware of spoilers for The Witcher: Season 1 ahead!
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Nigel (actor: Kristofer Hivju)
The Season 2 premiere will introduce a mysterious new character named Nigel, described as “a charismatic, witty and funny man” who comes from an “aristocratic family and has been cursed for the crimes he has committed in the past.” While there’s no character with this background named Nigel in the books or games, the description suggests Nigel may actually be Nivellen, a cursed nobleman whom Geralt encounters in the short story “A Grain of Truth.”
Kristofer Hivju has reportedly been cast in the role. Hivju is best known for the amiable wildling Tormund Giantsbane in HBO’s Game of Thrones. Hivju also joined another blockbuster franchise in 2017’s Fate of the Furious.
Lambert (actor: Paul Bullion)
Season 2 will introduce Lambert, one of Geralt’s fellows Witchers and a longtime rival. Lambert is best known for playing a major role in The Witcher 3, where he’s shown to hold a deep resentment of Geralt despite having a similar background and training.
Paul Bullion has reportedly been cast in the role. Bullion is best known for TV roles like Peaky Blinders and The Bastard Executioner. He also played Nicolae in 2014’s Dracula Untold and will play a Sadaukar soldier in the upcoming Dune reboot.
Coën (actor: Yasen Atour)
In addition to Lambert, Season 2 will introduce another Witcher in the form of Coën. Coën plays a significant role in the novel Blood of Elves, where he helps Geralt and Lambert train Ciri in the ruins of Kaer Morhen. With Season 1 ending with the first encounter between Geralt and Siri, Season 2 may pick up from that point and focus on the three men training her in the art of swordfighting.
Yasen Atour has reportedly been cast in the role. Moviegoers may recognize Atour from recent action movies like 2016’s Ben-Hur, 2015’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and 2018’s Robin Hood.
Violet (actress: Carmel Laniado)
Season 2 will introduce a new character named Violet, one who doesn’t appear to have any analogue in author Andrzej Sapkowski’s books. Violet is described as “a young girl whose playful and whimsical demeanour is a front for a smarter and more sadistic character.” She’s expected to appear in at least three episodes of Season 2.
Violet will be played by Carmel Laniado, who previously appeared as Lady Rose in 2020’s Dolittle and Young Lottie in FX’s 2019 version of A Christmas Carol.
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The follow characters appeared in Season 1, and many will be returning in Season 2.
Renfri (actress: Emma Appleton)
The breakout supporting character of The Witcher Season 1 is easily Renfri, played by Emma Appleton. Renfri’s story is inspired by Snow White, with her being a princess cast out of her home and on the run, protected by a merry band of vagabonds. Renfri’s story is directly tied in with the sorcerer Stregobor (more on him next). He believes she is one of several women who is cursed and evil, and he is trying to kill them all.
Stregobor (actor: Lars Mikkelsen)
The sorcerer Stregobor is a prime example of the dark, corrupt nature of magic users on The Continent. He is first introduced in episode 1 of The Witcher as the character trying to get Geralt to kill Renfri, but he also serves as Istredd’s teacher and a key figure in the leaders of the northern sorcerers’ circle, the Brotherhood of Sorcerers. Both Geralt and Yennefer clash with him frequently on moral and political levels.
Queen Calanthe (actress: Jodhi May)
Queen Calanthe, played by British actress Jodhi May, is Ciri’s grandmother, the strong-willed and hot-headed warrior queen of Cintra. Calanthe is portrayed as fiercely protective of her family, particularly her only daughter, Pavetta (Gaia Mondadori). Calanthe crosses paths with Geralt when she hires him to come to a feast where she plans to determine who Pavetta will marry. Calanthe dies in the first episode of Season 1, but thanks to the various timelines threaded through the narrative of the series, we see her several times throughout the course of the season.
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Eist (actor: Björn Hlynur Haraldsson)
The former Jarl of Skellige-turned-King of Cintra, Eist was a longtime flame of Queen Calanthe before she finally tied the knot with him following Pavetta’s betrothal to Duny. He serves as a grandfather/father figure to Ciri alongside Calanthe, and is a loyal, if humorously inappropriate, husband to his queen.
Pavetta (actress: Gaia Mondadori)
Pavetta is the daughter of Queen Calanthe of Cintra and mother of Princess Cirilla. She marries Duny, a prince who was promised Pavetta by the Law of Surprise after he saved her father many years prior. Pavetta dies at some point during the events of The Witcher’s first season, leaving her mother caring for her daughter and with Ciri promised to Geralt through another Law of Surprise binding.
Duny (actor: Bart Edwards)
Duny is a cursed prince who Pavetta falls in love with and marries, and who is the father of Ciri. Both he and Pavetta died on a shipwreck at some point over the years, which is why Ciri is raised by Calanthe.
Tissaia de Vries (actress: MyAnna Buring)
Tissaia de Vries is Yennefer’s mentor and one of the rectors at the sorceress school of Aretuza. Though she plucked Yennefer out of a horrible life when she was young, their relationship is contentious, and Yennefer remained at odds with Tissaia for many years. Despite their differences, Tissaia and Yennefer team up one fateful time at the Battle of Sodden Hill to try to protect the northern regions of the Continent from Nilfgaardian invasion.
Cahir (actor: Eamon Farren)
Frequent subject of Ciri’s nightmares, Cahir is a Nilfgaardian soldier who chased Ciri out of the burning remains of Cintra, staying hot on her trail as she ran away to try to find Geralt of Rivia. His story differs in the show than in the novels, as he stays on Ciri’s trail and later teams up with Fringilla as heads to lead the charge on Sodden Hill.
Triss (actress: Anna Shaffer)
Triss is one of the most prominent side characters in The Witcher books and games, and frequently is presented as another possible love interest to him beyond Yennefer. In the show, she encounters Geralt during his encounter with King Foltest and the striga, and later reunites with her longtime friend Yennefer at the Battle of Sodden. Though we don’t see much of their backstory, Triss is one of Yennefer’s better friends among the sorceresses and a great ally of both Yennefer and Geralt. Triss is an incredibly powerful magic user, and we see in the show she has an affinity for nature-based magic, raising up poisonous mushrooms and creating a wall of roots to ward of Nilfgaardian attackers.
Jaskier (actor: Joey Batey)
Jaskier (known as Dandelion to Witcher book and games fans) is technically Geralt’s best friend, but not because Geralt necessarily wants things that way. A reknowned bard and even more reknowned lothario, Jaskier is the comic relief of The Witcher. It’s often his antics that get Geralt into his most notable scrapes, and the two cross paths throughout the years as Jaskier becomes more famous and more frequently annoys his white-haired friend.
Fringilla Vigo (actress: Mimi Ndiweni)
Over the years she becomes a true ally of Nilfgaard and is a devout believer in what the seemingly villainous country stands for. She leads the invasion into the Northern Kingdoms and spearheads the clash against her former allies and sorcerers at Sodden Hill. Fringilla is the niece of Artorius, the chief sorcerer in the Brotherhood.
Istredd (actor: Royce Pierreson)
Yennefer’s first love, Istredd, is a sorcerer who came up in his training at the same time as Yennefer. He is one of the few characters on the show who knew Yennefer before her transformation, and the two had a romantic relationship. But after Yennefer discovered Istredd had been spying on her for Stregobor (despite the fact she had been doing the same for Tissaia), she cut ties with him after she completed her transformation. He credits Stregobor for getting him to refocus on his work, and despite Yennefer trying to rekindle their love once she realizes she may have made a mistake pursuing power over partnership, he declines her overtures. When we last see Istredd, he has allied himself with the Nilfgaardians.
Vilgefortz (actor: Mahesh Jadu)
Only introduced in the final two episodes of Season 1, Vilgefortz is one of the most important characters to keep an eye on in Season 2 and going forward. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers who tricks Yennefer into returning to Aretuza and helping Tissaia in the showdown that eventually became the Battle of Sodden Hill. He is a key player in The Witcher books and certainly someone who has more than it seems up his sleeves.
Yennefer of Vengeberg (actress: Anya Chalotra)
Geralt of Rivia’s longtime on-again, off-again love interest and the subject of his last wish to the djinn, Yennefer of Vengeberg is an incredibly powerful and strong-willed sorceress and one of the three main characters of The Witcher. The Netflix series fleshes out a backstory only alluded to in the books, showing her as a hunchback taken in and trained by Tissaia. After years of growing up mistreated, Yennefer craves beauty and power, and undergoes the transformation to become a sorceress not fully understanding that, in doing so, she will lose her ability to bear children.
Yennefer’s storyline in Season 1 takes place over the course of about 70 years, and though she gets her time at court and has many lovers, she finds her life unfulfilled. Instead, she tries to fix the changes she underwent to become a sorceress and reclaim her ability to have children, constantly trying to find loopholes to get around the seemingly unfixable decision. She becomes bound with Geralt during one such attempt, when she tries to capture a djinn and force it to give her back the ability to bear a child.
Despite years at odds with her former teacher, Yennefer is forced to choose a side and fight for something once Nilfgaard destroys Cintra and heads its invasion toward the rest of the Northern Kingdoms. She unleashes her full power at the Battle of Sodden, defeating the Nilfgaard forces, but at what cost?
Princess Cirilla (actress: Freya Allan)
In many ways the center of The Witcher stories, Princess Cirilla of Cintra — or Ciri — is bound by fate to Geralt of Rivia. She has unknown but powerful magical abilities, only touched on in Season 1 of the series but the origins of which are a core part of the central story of The Witcher books. Ciri is the daughter of Pavetta and Duny and the granddaughter of Queen Calanthe of Cintra. Her storyline in Season 1 takes place over the course of about two weeks, with her escaping Cintra and trying to find Geralt, only to come across elves, former Cintrans and even a nice family who want to capture her.
She finally fulfills destiny as a Child of Surprise by uniting with Geralt in episode 8. In the books, she actually has met Geralt once already by the time they meet again after the fall of Cintra, but The Witcher Netflix series nixed that plot point in favor of having them finally come together in the final moments of Season 1.
Geralt of Rivia, the Butcher of Blaviken (actor: Henry Cavill)
You know him, you love him, Geralt of Rivia is the Witcher in this fan-favorite series. Henry Cavill has been itching for this role for years — and you of course know Cavill from everything from Man of Steel and the DC expanded universe through Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Cavill absolutely loves Geralt as much as fans do, which we got him to prove when he aced our questions trying to see just how much he knew about The Witcher. Check out how that went in the video below:
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Who is your favorite character in The Witcher: Season 1? Let us know in the comments below. And for more on The Witcher, check out every episode review of Season 1 and its ending explained. Then find out more about Netflix’a animated spinoff, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
