With The Witcher fans waiting eagerly for Henry Cavill & Co. to drop Season 2 on the world, Netflix is busy continuing to expand the fantasy drama's narrative reach with various spinoffs. While not a ton of news has surfaced for the live-action prequel The Witcher: Blood Origin since its initial announcement, the streaming studio has now revealed that Star Trek: Discovery and Crazy Rich Asians star Michelle Yeoh is set to take on a leading role. I'll go ahead and predict that this is perfecto casting right from the jump.
Check out Netflix's announcement below, which comes with a few details about who Michelle Yeoh will be playing in The Witcher: Blood Origin, and note that this isn't the same character that Queen and Slim star Jodie Turner-Smith was set to portray before she exited the series earlier this year due to scheduling.
With the flagship showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich developing alongside showrunner Declan de Barra, The Witcher: Blood Origin will be set around 1,200 years before the events of the Henry Cavill-led flagship series, and will tell the origin story of the Witchers. As such, we probably shouldn't expect any cameos from him or co-stars Freya Allan or Anya Chalotra, although it's probably not altogether impossible. Regardless, all eyes are going to be on Michelle Yeoh anyway, as she'll be playing Scían, whose sword artistry could make for some excellent fight scenes within the six-episode spinoff. This is where she can really show off her graceful action style as seen in the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon films, as well as Strike Back and the upcoming feature film Gunpowder Milkshake. (Not to mention Star Trek: Discovery itself.)
Here's an additional bit of character info that Netflix shared in its official non-Twitter announcement.
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.
It's rather amazing that Michelle Yeoh even has the time to fit such a high-profile new series into her already busy-as-all-the-hells project slate, though I guess it does help that this will be a limited series. (At least for now.) Yeoh not only has the aforementioned female-heavy actioner Gunpowder Milkshake coming soon, but she's also set for Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, James Cameron's Avatar 2 and its many planned sequels, the drama Everything Everywhere All at Once, and the fantasy Nezha (Life as Lotus). Not to mention a bunch of voice roles for projects like Minions: The Rise of Gru, The School for Good and Evil, Blazing Samurai, The Tiger's Apprentice and ARK: The Animated Series.
Michelle Yeoh is only the second cast member announced for The Witcher: Blood Origin, which itself was formally revealed back in July 2020. She'll join actor Laurence O’Fuarain, who has a track record for historical and fantasy series, having appeared in Game of Thrones, Into the Badlands and Vikings. As far as we know, Jodie Turner-Smith's role has yet to be filled, so that casting news might be on the way soon enough.
Netflix has not yet announced when The Witcher: Blood Origin will arrive, but now that the prequel has landed at least one marquee star, we can only hope that the production process moves along speedily in the near future. Until we hear more, though, there are lots of great July premieres coming to Netflix, on top of all the other great 2021 Summer TV shows.
