‘The Witcher’ Netflix Series To Make Major Change To Ciri

A recently surfaced casting ad reveals that The Witcher Netflix series may be taking some creative freedom with one of the series’ star characters, Ciri.

According to a confidential National Youth Theatre ad listing, Netflix is looking “for a 16 or 15 year old BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic) girl who can play down to 13/14.” The listing adds that the applicant must be under 18.

What’s noteworthy about this is that Netflix and co. are looking for a nonwhite actress. As you may know, in the source material, Andrzej Sapkowski’s book series, Ciri is depicted as racially white.

The listing continues, defining the character as resilient, relentless, brazen, and growing, and providing the following blurb about her background and involvement in the series’ plot:

“CIRI can often be found rough-housing with the Palace hands instead of sitting in finery at the knee of the QUEEN CALANTHE, her grandmother. That is, until Cintra is massacred by the Nilfgaardians and CIRI is orphaned, left to traverse THE CONTINENT, alone. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s a direct descendent of LARA DORREN, an Elven Mage – which is why everyone in our series is after her. We follow CIRI as she evades her captors, and in the meantime, discovers her magical talents, her dark side, and the role she is to play in the coming apocalypse. We are looking for an extraordinary young talent to lead this series. She should be brave hearted and MUST have something truly special about her.”

With the series poised to begin shooting next month, we should be finding out soon who Netflix has casted for the leading role. Earlier this week, it revealed that Henry Cavill of Superman fame has been cast as the series’ protagonist, Geralt of Rivia. It will be interesting to see if Netflix opts for another recognizable face for its secondary lead role, or goes for more of an unknown quantity.

The Witcher Netflix series is poised to release sometime next year. For more news and information on the TV adaptation, be sure to check out all of our previous coverage of it by clicking here.

Thanks, ResetEra.