As we learned yesterday via a reliable insider Daniel Richtman, Netflix’s The Witcher has been casting a bunch of new roles, both canon and original. While we covered the casting breakdown, there are a few more things to talk about like the latest rumour about Mark Hamill.

Several days ago We Got This Covered reported that Mark Hamill was offered the role of Vesemir. Not many people took the report seriously as the blog has a bad reputation due to many inaccurate reports in the past and the Mark Hamill rumour has been going since before the first season entered production. Turns out, this particular report was, in fact, true.

Mark Hamill was indeed offered the role of Vesemir for The Witcher Season 2. Before Mark, Richtman reports, the role was offered to Michael Keaton and Mads Mikkelsen. Naturally, being the most populat Geralt fancast, Mikkelsen will have more attention from this news, but let us just say that it would be quite entertaining to see former Batman being Superman’s mentor.

Fun Fact: The role of Vesemir was offered to Michael Keaton and Mads Mikkelsen. Both passed#TheWitcherNetflix Season 2 — Daniel Richtman (@DanielRPK) February 18, 2020

Beside that, the production sheet confirms the filming dates we have been reporting for the past couple of months: from February 17 to August 14.

Regarding Eskel, Shani, Philippa, Meve, Jarre, the Michelet brothers and other missing characters from the list; it’s obviously incomplete. Season One had over 100 characters and this list only has 14. It’s hard to imagine that the new season would only have 14 new additions to the cast. That said, it’s entirely possible that some characters could have been cut or had their introductions postponed until Season Three.

As for the intriguing characters who are on the list, we must mention Isolde. She’s described as an old woman, fresh-faced and charming. She’s an oracle, a healer and has a gift for divinations and prophecies. Appears only in one episode. In our initial post we suggested Nenneke or Iola, but they wouldn’t appear only in one episode, they would be recurring for at least a few. Therefore we are almost certain that Isolde is, in fact, Ithlinne Aegli aep Aevenien herself. The one who made the legendary prophecy.

Ithiinne Aegli aep Aevenien in CDPR’s Gwent

How would that even be possible? Ciri’s abilities and visions open quite a range of possibilities for the show to play with. It’s possible that Ciri will “meet’ Ciri will “meet’ Ithlinne in one of her visions.

But perhaps the most intriguing character is the one codenamed Vanessa-Marie. She is an old white-haired woman, a demon that prowls the land, bargaining with people, offering them their deepest desires, but at the cost of pain and anguish. That sounds extremely close to Gaunter O’Dimm, the iconic villain of Hearts of Stone expansion for The Witcher III: Wild Hunt.

Gaunter O’Dimm in CDPR’s Hearts of Stone

Vanessa-Marie will appear in three to four episodes which indicates quite an arc. It’s currently hard to say where she will appear and who she will interact with. If we had to start guessing, both Geralt and Ciri’s arcs are somewhat packed throughout the season and this demon doesn’t seem to fit there.

On the other hand, Yennefer’s arc from Sodden to meeting Jaskier in Oxenfurt seems to be blank and that’s where Vanessa-Marie could fit in. Additionally, Yennefer still wants to have a child so bargaining with a demon absolutely seems like something she could go for in order to achieve her goal.

Stay tuned at Redanian Intelligence for more filming news soon.