Who Is Brehen? Dolph Lundgren's Witcher Character Explained

Warning: spoilers for The Witcher season 4 and its special episode, The Rats: A Witcher Tale.

Netflix released a surprise special episode of The Witcher, and its biggest reveal is the introduction of a new witcher. Season 4 is the biggest challenge that The Witcher has faced so far, as it’s the first season after Henry Cavill’s departure. Season 4 is the debut of Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia, and it’s the basis for some of the show’s darkest storylines.

The Witcher season 4 is the proper debut of the Rats, a group of thieves that rescued Ciri (Freya Allan) at the end of season 3, and who became her new family. Near the end of The Witcher season 4, Ciri left the Rats but returned to save them from ruthless bounty hunter Leo Bonhart, but it was too late.

Bonhart brutally killed the Rats and forced Ciri to witness how he decapitated a dead Mistle, Ciri’s lover. However, The Witcher gave the Rats another chance with a secret special episode titled The Rats: A Witcher Tale, which explores their story before the events of season 4, and which also introduces a new witcher.

The Witcher’s Rats Spinoff Introduces A New Witcher Played By Dolph Lundgren

The Rats: A Witcher Tale takes place shortly before the title group meets Ciri, and centers around their planned heist at Dominik Houvenaghel’s fighting arena. The Rats want to get his fortune, which is guarded by mercenary Bert Brigden and his jalowick, a deadly, alchemically altered monster.

Aware of how hard it would be for them to get through such a monster, the Rats know they need some extra help. Enter witcher Brehen (Dolph Lundgren), a monster hunter from the School of the Cat. Brehen reluctantly agrees to join the Rats, and despite his strong and aggressive personality, he forms a special bond with Mistle.

Despite having never appeared on The Witcher before, Brehen isn’t an original character, and he does come from the books (Season of Storms, to be exact). Brehen was known for his cruelty, and he didn’t hesitate to kill humans as well as monsters. This was a result of faulty witcher mutations, like those of most of the witchers from the School of the Cat.

These resulted in Brehen having unpredictable behavior and bouts of erratic temperament. His most infamous moment was the Iello massacre, where a confrontation ended in carnage. This event led to Brehen being barred from other witcher schools, and he even believed Vesemir had issued a death sentence on him.

Geralt Briefly Met Brehen In The Witcher Books

Although Brehen and Geralt don’t meet in the world of Netflix’s The Witcher, they do meet briefly in the books. The two witchers met at the Wild Boar and Stag Inn, and Brehen tried to provoke Geralt into a duel as he believed Geralt was trying to take his contract from King Foltest.

Brehen took a priestess hostage, but realized Geralt was an opponent to fear when he had his swords delivered to him. Brehen shared with Geralt that he was no longer welcome at his school and his belief about Vesemir, with Geralt assuring him that witchers don’t kill each other… but he would break that rule if he provoked another massacre.

The Rats Spinoff Gives Brehen A Definitive Ending

In the Witcher books, Brehen’s fate is left unknown, but in the video games, he’s killed by King Foltest’s daughter as a striga. The Rats: A Witcher Tale gives Brehen a definitive and heroic ending, as he locks himself inside a vault with Bonhart to give the Rats a chance to escape.

The Rats: A Witcher Tale made key changes to Brehen, some of which might be divisive, but it gave the mysterious witcher an ending fitting with his journey with the Rats.

Release Date

December 20, 2019

Network

Netflix

Showrunner

Lauren Schmidt Hissrich

Directors

Stephen Surjik, Charlotte Brändström, Edward Bazalgette, Loni Peristere, Louise Hooper, Bola Ogun, Alex Garcia Lopez, Gandja Monteiro, Sarah O’Gorman

Writers

Haily Hall, Clare Higgins, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Jenny Klein, Tania Lotia

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  Anya Chalotra

  Yennefer of Vengerberg