Netflix’s first full trailer for The Witcher: Blood Origin shines a spotlight on the prequel’s key characters played by Michelle Yeoh, Sophia Brown, and Laurence O’Fuarain. But it also comes with a bit of a surprise at the very end, revealing the return of Joey Batey’s Jaskier.
The bard’s return doesn’t make all that much sense yet, as the series takes place 1,200 years before The Witcher, but it might have something to do with the massive monoliths included in the trailer that are “causing tears between worlds.” Towards the end of the trailer, Jaskier’s lute appears, while Minnie Driver’s Seanchai, a character described by Netflix as a “shapeshifting collector of old lore with the abilities to travel between time and worlds” asks a disheveled-looking Jaskier to “sing a story back to life.”
Aside from the unexpected return of Jaskier, the new trailer also highlights the full team of outcasts that must come together to fight an “unstoppable empire,” and gives us a glimpse at Lenny Henry as Chief Sage Balor. In addition to Yeoh’s Scian, Brown’s Eile, and O’Fuarain’s Fjall, the series will star Mirren Mack as Princess Merwyn, Francesca Mills as Meldof, Huw Novelli as Brother Death, and Zach Wyatt and Lizzie Annis as the celestial twin sages, Syndril and Zacaré.
The Witcher: Blood Origin is a four-part series that hits Netflix on December 25th, 2022. Meanwhile, season three of the mainline Witcher series is set to debut in the summer of 2023. Although the show has been renewed for a fourth season, it’ll come with a major casting change that has Liam Hemsworth replacing Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia.