Michelle Yeoh Cast In Major Netflix Spinoff Series
Here's everything we know so far about Michelle Yeoh's next big role for Netflix.
Netflix has added a remarkable talent to its planned limited spinoff series for The Witcher by way of actress Michelle Yeoh.
The Star Trek: Discovery and Crazy Rich Asians actress is the latest to join the prequel titled The Witcher: Blood Origin, which has already been given a six-episode limited series order by the streaming giant. Michelle Yeoh will play a mysterious elven character named Scían.
In a tweet announcing the news, Netflix described Michelle Yeoh’s character.
While that doesn’t offer too much in the way of details, Variety had a little bit more information about Scían and how Michelle Yeoh will fit perfectly into both the role and The Witcher universe. In the Netflix tweet, we learned that her character will be great with a blade. Variety added that there will be a chance for her character to retrieve a sacred sword previously stolen from her tribe. She will enter a quest to retrieve that sword and “change the outcome of the Continent”.
The Witcher: Blood Origin will be set 1,200 years before the events of season one of The Witcher, which dropped on Netflix in 2019. The prequel will deal heavily with the origins of the Witchers and how they came to be the ultimate protectors of the land. As a result, it’s doubtful that Michelle Yeoh’s character will get any screen time with Henry Cavill’s Geralt of Rivia or his co-stars, Freya Allan and Anya Chalotra. Fortunately for fans, those three are hard at work on The Witcher Season 2, making Yeoh’s inclusion in a spinoff just icing on the cake that is the ever-growing Witcher universe.
In January, Netflix announced that Queen & Slim and The Last Ship star Jodie Turner-Smith would headline Blood Origin. However, it seems she won’t share the screen with Michelle Yeoh because Deadline reported in April that she had to bow out of the project over a scheduling conflict.
Her role of Éile, an elite warrior who left her clan to pursue music after discovering she was blessed with the voice of a goddess, is still waiting to be recast. Meanwhile, Michelle Yeoh will join the only other previously announced cast member on Blood Origins, Laurence O’Fuarain, who was tapped to play a character known as Fjall, a warrior plagued by guilt after a loved one sacrificed themselves for him in battle.
Fans of Michelle Yeoh’s will be delighted to hear that her latest role may very well put a sword in her hand. For many, their introduction to the 58-year-old Malaysian actress was as Yu Shu Lien in the 2000 martial arts epic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, where her graceful prowess with stage combat and swordplay helped carry the movie to legendary new heights.
Currently, there’s no word on when The Witcher: Blood Origin will begin production. However, it will likely be a while from now given all the other projects that Michelle Yeoh has on her plate between now and then. Before she joins the world of The Witcher, she’ll appear in Marvel’s upcoming film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Seven Rings, James Cameron’s highly anticipated Avatar sequels, Everything Everywhere All at Once for A24 and Navot Papushado’s Gunpowder Milkshake for StudioCanal.
