Haven’t you always wanted a Witcher tour guide? Enter Minnie Driver — as announced during today’s Tudum fan event, the Oscar nominee has joined the new prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin as its narrator. Driver will play a Seanchai, a shapeshifting collector of old lore with the abilities to travel between time and worlds. In other words, she’s a tour guide of sorts for audiences. “Where The Witcher came from is a whole world and you need some help understanding that,” Driver tells Tudum. “So I’m pivotal in helping people understand where this origin story comes from.”
Blood Origin is set 1,200 years before the events of The Witcher, in an elvish civilization that has yet to interact with humans or monsters. It follows a trio of warrior elves (Michelle Yeoh, Laurence O’Fuarain, and Sophia Brown) who will become entangled with the creation of the first prototype Witcher. It also spans the events leading up to the Conjunction of the Spheres — the moment the human, elf and monster worlds collide.
And how does Driver fit into all this? The series’ narrator isn’t simply a disembodied voiceover; she’s also a character in her own right. “That’s what is so brilliant about [Blood Origin creator Declan de Barra] and also it’s sort of in keeping with all the characters in The Witcher,” Driver says. “They are these fully formed, fleshed-out, amazing characters.” For Driver, the chance to play one of those individuals was irresistible. “It’s why I wanted to do it,” she says. “It’s because the character is so beautiful and strange. And nothing like anything I'd ever done before.”
A self-professed fantasy fan, Driver cites The Lord of the Rings novels and films as a lifelong influence. Those film adaptations also include a beguiling voiceover, via Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel. Driver draws a slight comparison — but don’t expect her narrator to be too Tolkienesque. “It does live in the same world, in the way that a narrator is the spine of your initial understanding when you are entering into a world,” Driver says. “To begin with, they’ve got to really hold you and bring you into the story and introduce this whole world to you... but they’re very, very different characters.”
This isn’t the first time the Good Will Hunting star has taken on a challenging voice role; she’s previously voiced characters in the original Tomb Raider video games, Disney’s Tarzan, and the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s lush fantasy Princess Mononoke. She’s also released three solo albums between 2004–2014. “I’ve done a lot of voiceover work,” Driver says. “I love it. And I think, [because] I’m a singer as well, it’s very comfortable.”
But that doesn’t mean she won’t need to warm up her voice a little for the part. “I'm just in the shower singing early, which wakes everybody up,” Driver says. “I just get in the steam shower and do a whole vocal workout before I even brush my teeth.”
The Witcher: Blood Origin hits Netflix this Dec. 25.
With five distinct celebrations, Tudum: A Netflix Global Fan Event includes first-look photos, never-before-seen footage, new trailers, behind-the-scenes access, celebrity appearances, interviews, and more from over 100 of your favorite series, films and specials.
