Netflix has just announced that Michelle Yeoh is joining the cast of The Witcher: Blood Origin in a major role. She will play Scían, the last of her nomadic tribe of sword-elves. The Witcher: Blood Origin will be a six-part, limited prequel series to the hit show The Witcher, which will be helmed by showrunner and executive producer Declan De Barra. The Witcher's Lauren Schmidt Hissrich will also serve as an executive producer, joined by Jason Brown, Sean Daniel, Tomek Baginski and Jarek Sawko. Additionally, the series author, Andrzej Sapkowski, will join the creative team as a consultant.
The Witcher: Blood Origin takes place 1200 years before The Witcher, and will explore the creation of the first Witcher, as well as the events that led to the "conjunction of the spheres," when the worlds of monsters, men and elves merged into one. Yeoh's Scían is a renowned swordfighter with a tragic backstory. She is thrown into the events of the series when a chance presents itself to retrieve her tribe's stolen sacred sword.
Yeoh is the biggest name to be cast in the series so far, and will join Laurence O’Fuarain, who plays Fjall. O’Fuarain's character was born into a clan of warriors sworn to protect the king, and embarks on a quest for redemption after the death of a loved one. He will find himself fighting alongside several unlikely allies, one of whom could very well be Scían. Based on the summary and the current cast of characters, we might have another "found family" story on our hands in The Witcher: Blood Origin.
Casting Yeoh was also a fabulous choice, as the veteran actor has years of martial arts and action experience as well as the emotional gravitas to back it up. Wuxia fans will recognize her best from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as well as the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. She also made a notable turn in Crazy Rich Asians as Nick's uncompromising and complicated mother. She also stars in Star Trek: Discovery as Philippa Georgiou, who is currently in development for a spin-off series.
She has a series of fantastic projects in the works in addition to The Witcher: Blood Origin, including Netflix's action flick Gunpowder Milkshake coming out later this year. Yeoh will also star in Marvel's latest superhero movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as well as the YA adaptation of The School for Good and Evil. James Cameron has cast her in his Avatar sequels as scientist Dr. Karina Mogue, and she will reunite with Henry Golding for the animated action-adventure film The Tiger's Apprentice. This is a brief overview of her future projects, and doesn't even cover all of them, which almost proves that Yeoh is experiencing one of the best and biggest moments of her career.
The Witcher: Blood Origin is still in pre-production, with no news of when the series can be expected to premiere. The Witcher Season 1 is currently available on Netflix.