The Witcher looks set to be a fixture on Netflix for years to come. The series quickly became one of the most popular on the platform, a second season is already in production and showrunner Lauren Hissrich has said that they have plans for a seven-season story.
One character that’s certain to play a big role going forward is Vesemir. Familiar to both fans of the games and the books, Vesemir is an older Witcher who trained Geralt way back in the day. And when I say ‘older,’ I mean it, as the methods used to create Witchers lead to unnaturally long life, meaning he could be hundreds of years old.
A younger version of Vesemir appeared in season 1 (played by Theo James), but this surely only teases the arrival of the crotchety older Witcher in future seasons. And, ever since the show was first announced back in 2018, fans have been adamant that there’s only one actor for the role: Mark Hamill.
Hamill commented on the idea back when the campaign launched, too, responding to a picture of the character by saying: “I have no idea what this is or what it’s about but agree it could/should be played by me.” When the show premiered in December, Hamill then made another post, telling Netflix to #CallMyAgent.
And while nothing is official just yet, Hissrich, a self-described “huge Star Wars fan,” isn’t ruling it out. In an interview with IGN, she commented on her excitement that Hamill would be interested, saying:
“It was one of those first Witcher moments for me where I was like, ‘oh my God, is this even possible? That Mark Hamill knows what this is and would be interested in doing that?”
But could he really be in contention? Here’s what the showrunner shared:
“Mark has always been of interest to me and interest to the project. We have not contacted his agent yet because we’re not casting the role quite yet, but that being said, I am loving what’s happening on the internet. And I’m loving all of the fan reaction to it. Obviously, we’ve seen what a huge fanbase The Witcher has, and to add that to a Star Wars fanbase… it makes my mind explode a little bit.”
That actually sounds pretty positive. And despite her claims that they haven’t been in contact with Hamill’s team just yet, WGTC has heard quite the opposite, as we told you a few weeks back that Netflix has already reached out.
Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time a cast or crew member has told a white lie to keep things under wraps, but it’s still good to hear that she’s on the same page as the fans. After all, Hissrich has explained in the past that she wants The Witcher to have a closer relationship with its fans than Game of Thrones did. So far, she’s lived up to that by being in constant contact with them on social media. So, who knows, perhaps this particular bit of fan casting may actually bear fruit?