All eyes are on The Witcher season 4 thanks to its Geralt of Rivia recast, but the title witcher isn’t the only character played by a different actor this season. Before season 3 of The Witcher was released, Henry Cavill’s departure was announced, along with Liam Hemsworth’s casting as Geralt of Rivia, generating a lot of conversation around season 4.
Liam Hemsworth made his debut as Geralt in The Witcher season 4 and will return as the title monster hunter for the show’s fifth and final season. While most of the attention will go to Hemsworth’s performance as Geralt, there’s another witcher in season 4 who has a different actor playing it: Vesemir, Geralt’s mentor.
The Witcher Season 4 Recast Vesemir With Peter Mullan
Vesemir is a powerful witcher from the School of the Wolf and the only witcher who survived the fall of Kaer Morhen. However, the young trainees at Kaer Morhen managed to escape, and Vesemir took them in, training them so they could become witchers, just like him. These kids were Remus, Lambert, Eskel, and Geralt.
Vesemir made his official debut in The Witcher season 2, played by Kim Bodnia. Season 2 saw Geralt’s return to Kaer Morhen, though now with Ciri by his side, which unleashed a series of chaotic events at the witchers’ home thanks to the presence of the Voleth Meir, who wanted to take Ciri. Vesemir and the surviving witchers of Kaer Morhen skipped The Witcher season 3, but they return in season 4, though Vesemir is different.
Vesemir is now played by Scottish actor Peter Mullan, who is best known for playing Jake in Riff-Raff, Joe Kavanagh in My Name Is Joe, and Death Eater Corban Yaxley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.
On TV, Mullan played Michael Scot in Shoebox Zoo, Lenny Douglas in The Fixer, Jacob Snell in Ozark, Father Carden in Cursed, and King Durin III in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, so he’s no stranger to fantasy worlds.
Why Kim Bodnia Didn’t Return As Vesemir In The Witcher Season 4
After skipping season 3 as it was a season focused on the dynamic between Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri, it came as a surprise that Vesemir was going to be recast for season 4 (and as a funny coincidence, given Geralt’s recast, as well). According to EW, Bodnia couldn’t return to the world of The Witcher due to scheduling conflicts.
At the time of filming The Witcher season 4, Bodnia was attached to the movie F1, directed by Joseph Kosinski. In it, Bodnia played Kaspar Smolinski, a team principal on APXGP. Although principal photography of F1 began in 2023, production was delayed due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, so filming continued through 2024.
Aside from F1 and The Witcher, Bodnia has appeared in a number of Danish films, with his most notable English-language movie being Young Woman and the Sea. On TV, Bodnia is best known for playing Konstantin Vasiliev in Killing Eve.
Four Actors Have Played Vesemir In Netflix’s Witcher Universe
Peter Mullan is the second actor to play the live-action version of Vesemir in Netflix’s The Witcher, but in the streamer’s Witcher universe, there have been a total of four actors who have played the character. In The Witcher season 1, Vesemir had a voice appearance, with Theo James voicing the legendary witcher.
Theo James returned as Vesemir in the animated prequel movie The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, which explores Vesemir’s backstory. In that same movie, David Errigo Jr. voiced the young version of Vesemir. Then came Kim Bodnia and Peter Mullan, so Vesemir, in different phases of his life, has been played by four different actors so far.
Although Vesemir hasn’t been a recurrent character in The Witcher, he’s a key character in Geralt’s story, as he’s the only father figure Geralt has known. As such, Vesemir deserved a larger role in The Witcher, though, then again, the show has mostly focused on the joint journeys of Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, not leaving enough room for other key players in their stories.
It’s to be seen if Vesemir could return in another Witcher spinoff TV show or movie, and if so, it’s to be seen if he will be played by one of these actors again or if the list of Vesemir actors will continue to grow.
Source: EW.
- Release Date
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December 20, 2019
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
- Directors
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Stephen Surjik, Charlotte Brändström, Edward Bazalgette, Loni Peristere, Louise Hooper, Bola Ogun, Alex Garcia Lopez, Gandja Monteiro, Sarah O’Gorman
- Writers
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Haily Hall, Clare Higgins, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Jenny Klein, Tania Lotia
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Anya Chalotra
Yennefer of Vengerberg
