Amind fan unrest, Driver wants to celebrate the chance for Geralt of Rivia to become the new Doctor Who.
Minnie Driver may be joining the world of “The Witcher” at a time of fan upset, but she’s not concerned.
Drive will be seen Christmas Day in the four-episode prequel to the Netflix series “The Witcher: Blood Origin” as Seanchaí, a shapeshifting, time-traveling storyteller. The character may also pop up in future seasons of the main “Witcher” universe, with Season 3 starring Henry Cavill for the last time before Liam Hemsworth replaces him. But Driver doesn’t understand all the uproar about the recasting.
“We come from this tradition of ‘Doctor Who’ where the Doctor regenerates,” Driver pointed out to EW in a recent interview. “I think we need to look at it far more like it’s amazing. It’s an amazing person, it’s an amazing character, and we should have different people playing it.”
And though Driver shared that she has not yet connected with Cavill about their “Witcher” connection, the two share a past. Cavill and her brother were schoolmates, and Driver has known Cavill since he was a teenager. “I love him,” she said. “He has been the loveliest person, I can attest, since he was a young man. He is divine.”
Cavill famously left “The Witcher” earlier this year after two seasons, it seemed to reprise his turn as Superman for DC Studios. But that was before new DC Studio co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran decided to take the character in another direction. Cavill is now attached to an adaptation of the video game Warhammer 40,000 for Amazon Studios.
As for what Seanchaí has in store for “The Witcher: Blood Origin,” Driver will only be seen at the beginning and the end of the prequel, though she serves as narrator for all four episodes.
“I was like, ‘Alright, so I’m not in every episode.’ It’s less cool, but still that’s more a them problem than a me problem,” the actress said. “But I really like the character. Who wouldn’t want to be a shapeshifting elf? You’ve got to be pretty hardhearted not to want to do that.”
Created by Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, “The Witcher: Blood Origin” stars Michelle Yeoh, Sophia Brown, and Laurence O’Fuarain in a prequel to “The Witcher” set 1,200 earlier and premieres December 25 on Netflix.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
