Lizzie Annis & Zach Wyatt Interview: The Witcher Blood Origin

The Witcher: Blood Origin is days away, with all 4 episodes premiering on Netflix in time for Christmas Day. The miniseries serves as a prequel for The Witcher, laying the foundation for the events transpiring in Geralt and Ciri’s lives in the present day. Twelve hundred years ago, however, the Continent was a very different place with no humans or even Witchers in sight. Instead, the ancient city of Xin’trea was an Elven stronghold even as warring clans threatened to tear each other apart from within.

Blood Origin‘s title refers to the creation of the first Witcher as well as to the mysterious Conjunction of the Spheres that has been referred to time and again in the lore of the world. Before that catastrophic event, which will be explored in the new series, magic was approached very differently. For example, actors Lizzie Annis and Zach Wyatt play Zacaré and Syndril, two elven sages who are known as “celestial twins”‘ because they were born under the same sign in the same village despite having no blood relation. Their knowledge of the mystical arts may lead to the interdimensional travel that makes the Continent as The Witcher knows it possible.

Screen Rant spoke to Annis and Wyatt about the role that magic plays in The Witcher: Blood Origin, and how they studied the various clans and cultures that come together in their story.

Lizzie Annis & Zach Wyatt on The Witcher: Blood Origin

Screen Rant: I love the different way that Blood Origin approaches magic, and we see how the world of The Witcher has blossomed since. Can you talk about how each of your characters approach magic?

Lizzie Annis: Zakaré and Syndril are celestial twins and born under the same magical burning star, which has imbued them with this really remarkable, incredibly powerful form and level of magic. At the start of this series, when we meet both Zakaré and Syndril, their magic is very Earthbound. It’s very connected to the earth; it’s very connected to the land itself, and that is where they draw their power from.

As the series progresses, and as the world around them changes, that fact too changes and develops. We move towards something slightly different, which is really exciting. And I think it’s going to be a real thrill for the audience to see that development, how that feeds into the Witcher world as we know it.

Zach, one thing that I find really cool is how many different clans and clashing communities there are that we see come together. Did you guys get a little introductory class, like a high school movie montage where they show you all the different tables?

Zach Wyatt: We’re lucky enough that towards the beginning of our filming, we went through the art and set design departments, looking at all of this material that belonged to the different clans. The emblems, the stories; the type of colors and banners that they might have had.

I think we had one big board where the whole map of the continent was. We got maybe not a crash course, but we had an introduction. And that dialogue we were having at the beginning, about our characters as celestial twins carried throughout the run, so we were constantly tapping back into our knowledge or lack thereof and what we needed to fill the gaps in for when it really counted. More to be learned, for sure.

About The Witcher: Blood Origin

Set in an elven world 1200 years before the world of The Witcher, Blood Origin tells a story lost to time – one of seven outcasts who unite against an unstoppable power that took everything from them. Their blood quest gives rise to a prototype Witcher in a conflict that brings about the “conjunction of the spheres,” when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one.

Check out our other The Witcher: Blood Origin interviews here:

The Witcher: Blood Origin premieres December 25 on Netflix.