The Witcher: Blood Origin features a major event in the franchise: the creation of the first Witcher – but who are they?
The official Netflix synopsis for the show reads: “Every story has a beginning. Witness the untold history of the Continent with The Witcher: Blood Origin, a new prequel series set in an elven world 1200 years before the events of The Witcher.
“Blood Origin will tell a story lost to time – exploring the creation of the first prototype Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal ‘Conjunction of the Spheres,’ when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one.”
This means it’s thousands of years before Henry Cavill’s Geralt of Rivia arrived in the Continent – so who is the first Witcher in Blood Origin?
Spoilers for The Witcher: Blood Origin to follow…
Who becomes the first Witcher in The Witcher Blood Origin?
Fjall of Dog Clan elects himself to become the first prototype Witcher in The Witcher Blood Origin.
It happens in Episode 3, which picks up with the somewhat magnificent seven after they escape through a mysterious portal and slice a monster in half as it closes, just like Wong in Avengers: Infinity War.
Syndril and Zacaré come up with an idea: if they take the heart of the monster they killed and merge its biological essence with another, they could become one with the beast – aka, they’ll become the first Witcher, capable of defeating Balor’s dragon.
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Éile wishes to sacrifice herself, but Fjall does it without her knowledge, and barely survives the procedure. This begins with the “trial of the grasses”, in which he ingests several liquids which break his body down in order for the mutations to be strong within his biology, before Syndril connects him to the monster. His eyes change to yellow, his skin goes grey, and he’s officially a Witcher (except only we know that, as they haven’t given his kind a name yet).
Later, Éile is forced to kill Fjall in order to put him out of his misery, as the Witcher transformation is slowly turning him into a fully-fledged monster – however, the show ends with Éile pregnant with his baby.
In an interview with Dexerto, Sophia Brown – who plays Éile – spoke about the experience of shooting the brutal sequence. “It was incredible to be a part of those scenes and to watch what happens in the show, and the stamina that you’d have to do those scenes was incredible to be a part of and watch,” she said.
Laurence O’Fuarain – who plays Fjall – also said: “Especially when we trained, we were in England, and then we switched to England for that big scene that we can’t tell anyone about right now.
“I remember there were some parts where I’m literally just watching Sophia doing her thing, and you just pinch yourself. The location is stunning, we’re over this big mountain, black sands, it was just a dream come true.”
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