Who is Gallatin in The Witcher?

Netflix is currently filming the third season of its monster-hunting fantasy show The Witcher. Over the course of two seasons, fans have followed Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Charlotra), and Princess Ciri (Freya Alan) on a variety of nail-biting adventures that pit them against monsters, mages, despotic rulers, and everything in between. With season 3, the stakes are poised to get even higher. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich has teased that season 3 will be “huge,” and the book that it’s based on, The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski, is widely considered one of the best in the series.

Expectations are high, both among fans and at Netflix, which is prepping various spinoffs; they include the Blood Origin prequel series starring MIchelle Yeoh and even a kids show.

The streamer raised the level of anticipation another level when they announced the first round of new actors joining The Witcher for season 3. Among them was Robbie Amell (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, The Flash), who will be playing Gallatin. Of all the new characters announced, Gallatin is the only one who is not a major player from the novels.

So who exactly is Gallatin? Let’s go over what we know.

Gallatin Witcher

Here’s the official Netflix description for this new character:

First off, Gallatin is an Elf. The Scoia’tael (or Squirrels) are an Elven guerilla force that aids Nilfgaard in the novels in exchange for the return of their ancestral lands once the North is conquered. The show has taken a bit more time to develop the Scoia’tael, giving us a kind of origin story for the renegade group last seasons with Francesca’s plotline. At the end of that season, Francesca appears to be the de facto leader of the group, but since she isn’t a wartime commander (at least, not in the books), it makes sense that a new Scoia’tael leader might rise to do the actual fighting.

Enter Gallatin, who will be leading the Scoia’tael next season. It’s not clear if he is the overall commander or simply controls a faction, but it’s interesting that the description sets up a conflict between him and Francesca (Mecia Simson) over “loyalty to [their] people.” As we saw at the end of season 2, Francesca was so caught up in grief over the assassination of her baby that she murdered a slew of human infants. This seemed to unsettle some of her followers, setting up a potential conflict to come.

As for what other characters Gallatin cross paths with, the Scoia’tael also have an interesting relationship with the dryads of Brokilon Forest. The new character Milva, played by Meng’er Zhang (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), is thoroughly intertwined with the dryads and known to the Scoia’tael in the novels. So we wouldn’t be surprised to see the two share scenes together next season.

The Witcher season 3 is currently filming and likely won’t premiere until 2023. In the meantime, Blood Origin is slated to come out sometime this year.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels