The Witcher S3 Brings Back a Familiar Actor, and It's the Worst Casting
Netflix, perhaps Laurence Fishburne's new character was mistaken for Dijkstra?
The Witcher, Netflix 's live-action adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy novel series of the same name, continues to lose fans at a rapid pace, despite Season 3's much better critical reception than its predecessor. However, the streaming service is not giving up on the show, and showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich is working hard to improve the quality of the series.
So, one of the main gimmicks of the future Season 4 should be the participation of Hollywood A-lister, star of The Matrix and John Wick Laurence Fishburne. He will play a new member of Geralt's team, introduced in the novel Baptism of Fire, on which the upcoming season will be based. According to the book, Geralt and his team travel in search of Ciri and meet Regis, a mysterious barber-surgeon with whom the witcher gradually becomes friends.
Regis is a fascinating character thanks to his intelligence, humor and sense of justice, so he's an indispensable companion for Geralt.
However, fans of the books are not impressed at all. Many feel it's yet another miscast, and even though Fishburne is a great talent, the beloved character may be yet another example of the show's disrespect for the source material.
5. You Never Know How Bad the Costume Might Turn Out!
Let's face it, regardless of how faithful the show's plot is to the source material, its problems go far beyond that. Viewers are annoyed by the costume designs: the black Play-Doh armor of the Nilfgaardian soldiers in Season 1, Yennefer's dress in Season 3 looking like it was just bought at H&M. Heck, even Cavill's wig looked ridiculous and out of place, despite the actor's excellent performance. In other words, we can only pray that the team will make Mr. Fishburne a believable Regis.
4. Regis May Be Affected by 'Morpheus' Typecasting
There is also the problem of the kind of roles Fishburne is usually cast in, which have already become part of his image and an absolute tiebreaker: The dour and stoic Morpheus from The Matrix is not much different from the equally dour Bowery King from John Wick.
These characters definitely have their own charm, but fans would have been much more comfortable with Laurence Fishburne as Dijkstra instead of Regis, given his similar character traits, authority and control over the entire underworld.
3. Maybe They Should Have Cast a Different Actor
Don't get us wrong, Fishburne will definitely do a good job, but to continue the previous point, it's worth noting that maybe someone else should have taken the role. Some spoilers: Regis is a higher vampire who, while uncharacteristically non-vicious, behaves in a classy and sometimes even comical manner. In the opinion of many, this role would have been better suited to English actors like Peter Capaldi or Jeremy Irons.
2. Fishburne's Stardom May Distract From the Other Actors (Especially Hemsworth)
The Henry Cavill example showed how much fans didn't care about the other actors because attention was focused on a much more famous actor who also happened to be a fan of the franchise. A similar thing happened with Disney 's The Mandalorian when cameos by Lizzo and Jack Black only distracted from the lesser-known cast. So the desire to boost ratings with Fishburne's star power may not have been the best commercial move, as Liam Hemsworth will have to win the hearts of fans first.
1. Laurence Fishburne Deserves Better
Finally, it should be emphasized that Laurence Fishburne is an actor of unprecedented stature. So even if his Regis comes out great and fans will love him, the actor probably deserves much better than to be involved in a controversial project that regularly generates a lot of hate.