When The Witcher: Blood Origin was first announced as a prequel miniseries to Netflix's main The Witcher series, the general question was how did this story connect to the beloved main series. Well aside from exploring the origins of how the first Witcher came to be, the series also employs a frame narrative that shows Jaskier (Joey Batey) being pulled from the field of battled by a woman known only as Seanchaí (Minnie Driver) and told to record the story of the seven adventurers.
Driver's Seanchaí acts as the narrator for the miniseries, weaving a complicated web of stories that ultimately reveals how the Conjunction of the Spheres came to be and how Fjall (Laurence O'Fuarain) became the first Witcher. Collider spoke with creators Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich about the inclusion of our favorite bard and the introduction of Seanchaí.
De Barra revealed that there was actually a different version of how they had planned to begin the story. However, after creating the Seanchaí character, the show decided to go in a different direction. De Barra explained:
We had actually shot a different version of it, and then we came up with this brilliant idea. We re-shot it because we wanted to bring in this character that Minnie plays of a Seanchaí, a shape-shifting storyteller that sort of drifts between worlds and times, collecting stories like grain, putting them in a seed bank for when the Worlds need them to replant them and let these stories flourish again for when people need them to rally around. It was just such a lovely, evocative image that we had to go with that.
After crafting the story, de Barra explained they were constantly reshaping it to make the story "better" and "stronger." Hissrich suggested bringing in Jaskier, which lead to the question of how would the frame narrative be created. The original version only had Batey's Jaskier by himself, singing the story, before casting Driver as the ethereal elf narrator.
Hissrich described Driver as "dream casting" for the show and added, "If you think about who is going to sound like this mysterious magical [elf], whose voice is going to pop up every now and then and just sort of remind us what the macro arc is, that's an amazing get for us." De Barra goes on to explain not only the thematic fit for Seanchaí in the story but also the origin of her name:
It just sort of fitted so well in. When I was thinking about this idea with Seanchaí story collection, it was that moment where all the story about music, and story and words being more powerful than any army, sort of all felt less than [compared] to [having] it sort of personified in this sort of creature that’s raison d'être is to collect stories because they are so powerful. It was great.
And the name Seanchaí actually comes from... It was a position in Ireland where you were a storyteller, and you went between the halls of kings, and you went to chieftains and people, and they were the most powerful people in the land and kings were fucking terrified of them – and queens – because one bad story would destroy you as a king. And they were far more worried about that than any army. And then bringing that back to life in this world, it just all clicked. It was one of those lovely synchronous moments of story.
All four episodes of The Witcher: Blood Origin are now available to stream on Netflix. Check out our interview with some of the cast below:
