A book character from The Witcher is being introduced in season 2

With Netflix still enjoying the success of The Witcher, everyone is wondering when they get to watch season 2. Unfortunately, that probably won’t be until 2021, but we’re getting hints about what the new episodes may hold even now.

Case in point: Witcher fansite Redanian Intelligence has found an audition tape posted by actor Graham McTavish, who you may recognize from stuff like The Hobbit, Outlander, Preacher and Lucifer. Guy gets around.

Anyway, in the tape, McTavish’s character — named David — is talking to a king. David mentions “my spies,” talks about stirrings in the east, and says stuff like, “[I]n my line of work today’s gossip is next month’s news.” Basically, he’s saying stuff a royal spymaster would say, leading Redanian Intelligence to believe that McTavish was auditioning for the role of Sigismund Dijkstra, the spymaster for King Vizimir II of Redania.

So Redanian Intelligence got intelligence about a guy auditioning to play the head of Redanian Intelligence. Is that irony? Whatever. Watch the tape below:

Incidentally, this is a backup video, the original one having been taken down. To me, that basically confirms that this is what we think it is, even if they changed Dijkstra’s name to David. What did Tyrion Lannister once say? “When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”

McTavish fits the physical profile of Dijkstra, too. In the books, Sigismund Dijkstra is described as bald and tall, at least seven feet. McTavish is only 6’2”, but the point is that he’s physically imposing.

In the novels, Dijkstra is styled as a count even though he’s a commoner, so respected is he in King Vizimir’s court. He’s also known to wear brightly colored, ostentatious clothing. He’s basically Varys from Game of Thrones if Varys could beat the crap out of you.

Dijkstra doesn’t show up in Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher novels until Blood of Elves, the third book in the series. As it happens, the first season of The Witcher ends exactly where Blood of Elves picks up, so it makes perfect sense for Dijkstra to come into the story about now.

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