The second season of Netflix’s fantasy hit The Witcher introduced lots of new elements to the Continent, including plenty of different monsters, the witcher’s keep of Kaer Morhen, the Wild Hunt and more. One of the most prominent additions in season 2 was a villain named Rience (Chris Fulton), who was a mage that specialized in forbidden fire magic.
Rience is an important character in the overarching Witcher story. He hunts for Ciri (Freya Alan) at the behest of a mysterious employer and runs afoul of Geralt (Henry Cavill) and Yennefer (Anya Charlotra) in the process. We can expect to see more of him in season 3, but he’ll be looking just a little bit different; the reliable Witcher news site Redanian Intelligence reports that Rience is being recast for the show’s third season, which is currently in production.
Rience recast for The Witcher season 3
Starting in season 3, Rience will now be played by Sam Woolf. Woolf has appeared in series like Strike and Theodoria, as well as done voice work for Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. He’s also slated to appear in the upcoming fifth season of The Crown as Prince Edward of Wessex.
Woolf and Fulton have such a similar look that RI actually had pictures of Woolf on set from months earlier, but because of the distance, their similar facial structures, and Rience’s heavy prosthetics, they couldn’t even tell that it was a new actor.
We’ll get to see Woolf in action as the villainous Rience once season 3 of The Witcher arrives on Netflix, likely sometime next year.
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