Geralt of Rivia is returning to our screens in the upcoming The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep anime movie, and he’s bringing a beloved voice actor with him. With Henry Cavill stepping away from the franchise, Doug Cockle (who voiced Geralt in CDProjektRed’s acclaimed The Witcher video games) is stepping in, before Liam Hemsworth officially takes over the role in the core show’s upcoming fourth season. But, even with over a decade of experience voicing Geralt, Cockle still faced a new challenge when reprising the role in Sirens of the Deep.
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Sirens of the Deep adapts Andzrej Sapkowski’s short story, “A Little Sacrifice,” in which Geralt attempts to broker an alliance and romance between a coastal lord and the Queen of a group of Mer-people. But Cockle faced one major problem stepping into the recording booth… he doesn’t speak Mer. “For me personally, it was really challenging trying to do the Mer-speak,” the veteran voice actor told ComicBook in a recent interview. “I don’t think that’s too much of a spoiler. The Mer-speak was hard, especially as Geralt of Rivia, because Geralt is quite monotone in so many ways and Mer-speak is very musical.”
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep’s Doug Cockle Tackles Musicality and Mer-Speak
Doug Cockle said that getting the cadence and the musicality of the Mer-speak was so difficult that he almost thought the task would be impossible. “I remember when the director [Kang Hei Chul] said, ‘Right, we need to get more musicality out of Geralt,’” he continued. “I was like, ‘I don’t know if there’s any more in him anymore.’”
Thankfully, Cockle found his Mer-voice, and the actor is incredibly pleased with the end result. “But, actually it worked out really well. I think it sounds really good.” It can be an especially difficult task to imagine Cockle’s iconic gravelly voice with added lyrical, Mer-folk qualities, especially when his regular portrayal can be likened to a dark fantasy Batman analogue. But if anybody’s up to the task of providing a dynamic voiceover performance for Geralt of Rivia, it’s the man who most famously brought the voice to life like never before in 2007.
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Sirens of the Deep Is a Classic The Witcher Story
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep releases on Netflix on February 11th. Alongside Cockle, the anime movie also features two more veteran The Witcher stars. Joey Batey and Anya Chalotra, who both star in the live-action The Witcher series, have returned for Sirens of the Deep to voice Jaskier and Yennefer, respectively. The new movie also stars Emily Carey, Christina Wren, Mallory Jansen, and Brittany Ishibashi.
Sirens of the Deep had the tall task of transforming one of Andrzej Sapkowski’s short stories into a feature-length movie. As a result, many fans were concerned about the film’s potential quality, especially with Netflix’s history of making alterations to Sapkowski’s world when adapting the story to live-action. But, Cockle promises fans that Sirens of the Deep still retains the essence of what makes The Witcher so beloved, even with its extended runtime. “This story, like so many of the stories in The Witcher, is full of moral dilemmas,” he explained. “Choices that have to be made where there really is no good choice to be made, which is kind of the hallmark of The Witcher world, really. So I think, I think that’s been really enjoyable.”
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep released on Netflix on February 11th.
