We don’t have a release date for the next season of Netflix’s live-action adaption of The Witcher yet, we do have an official piece of casting news. Legendary actor Laurence Fishburne, best known as The Matrix’s Redpill Resistance operative Morpheus, will join the fantasy drama series as the vampiric barber-surgeon Emiel Regis. The streaming giant announced the news on X/Twitter on January 12.
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Regis first appears in Polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski’s fifth book in The Witcher series, Baptism of Fire, and becomes something of a main character until the novels end. Although he’s mentioned in the games, the higher vampire doesn’t actually show his face until The Witcher 3‘s 2015 expansion, Blood and Wine. This will mark the fan-favorite character’s first appearance on the television show.
With his cool persona and steely delivery, Fishburne has brought to life an assortment of characters in both films and games. He played Perry White in 2013’s superhero flick Man of Steel (alongside former Geralt of Rivia actor Henry Cavill), The Bowery King in the revenge neo-noir action-thrillers John Wick, his most well-known character Morpheus in The Matrix games, Dr. Raymond Langston in two CSI-based games, and a large swath of other characters. Man’s got acting chops.
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Fishburne’s introduction to the cast comes as The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth steps into the weathered boots of Geralt of Rivia, replacing Henry Cavill. In light of the writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023, it’ll be some time before The Witcher returns to Netflix, but Fishburne joining the cast is an exciting surprise.
