Jodie Turner-Smith will no longer play one of the leads on The Witcher: Blood Origin, the prequel to the successful TV show based on The Witcher franchise. As Deadline reports, Turner-Smith’s departure is caused by a scheduling conflict that prevents the actress from being part of the highly anticipated series.
Turner-Smith was set to play Éile in the limited series, a warrior that abandons her clan and her post as the queen’s protector to wander the world as a singer. The events of Blood Origin will have Éile confront her past, taking the warrior back to her old home, where she’ll have to seek redemption for her past mistakes. The part of Éile will now have to be recast, but Netflix still hasn’t announced any possible replacement.
Netflix didn’t disclosure what other projects demand Turner-Smith attention right now, but we’ll see her later this year in the A24 film After Yang together with Colin Farrell, as well as in the action-thriller Without Remorse opposite Michael B. Jordan. Turner-Smith’s next project to film will be Borderland, an action-thriller that also stars John Boyega, Jack Reynor, Felicity Jones.
The Witcher: Blood Origin is planned as a six-episode limited series that’ll take place 1200 years before the events of the main series led by Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia. Blood Origins will show fans of the series how the first Witcher came to be, and how the worlds of man, monsters, and elves became intertwined, leading to all the conflicts we can see in the main series. Besides Turner-Smith, Netflix had already confirmed Laurence O’Fuarain to play Fjall, a warrior who joins Éile in her quest.
We still don’t know when Blood Origins will become available, but the second season of The Witcher recently wrapped up filming and will be released at some point in 2021.