Netflix’s new Witcher prequel spinoff series is here. Set 1,200 years before Geralt of Rivia got into monster-slaying, The Witcher: Blood Origin familiarizes us with an elven empire that’s long since crumbled to dust, detailing how their desire to conquer other worlds led to the celestial event known as the Conjunction of the Spheres
Blood Origin doesn’t all take place in the past, however. The story of the seven warriors who came together to overthrow the elven empire is relayed by a mysterious character known only as SeanchaÍ, played by Minnie Driver. But who exactly is SeanchaÍ? Let’s go over what we know.
SeanchaÍ explained (The Witcher: Blood Origin)
Little is known about the mystical shapeshifter known as SeanchaÍ — we don’t even know for certain if that’s their real name. In Blood Origin alone, we see them appear as both a mirror image of Jaskier (Joey Batey), as well as an elf played by Driver. What their true form looks like, we can only speculate.
According to The Witcher: Blood Origin showrunner Declan de Barra, SeanchaÍ is a “creature that moves through time collecting stories and bringing them back to life.” We saw this play out in Blood Origin, when the shapeshifter relays a tale to Jaskier in the hope that he will spread it to lift the spirits of the downtrodden elves living on the modern-day Continent.
But why does SeanchaÍ collect stories, and are they playing some sort of larger game? We don’t have an answer to those questions quite yet. The way the character is presented recalls Gaunter O’Dimm, the immortal shapeshifter who guides Geralt from the shadows for their own aims in The Witcher video games by CD Projekt Red. But given that Netflix’s Witcher is drawing its story from the novels by Andrzej Sapkowski and doesn’t have the rights to use characters created by CD Projekt Red, it’s unlikely that there’s a connection between SeanchaÍ and O’Dimm.
Should Netflix’s Witcher universe continue, we may get more answers about SeanchaÍ’s motives. Of all the characters introduced in The Witcher: Blood Origin, the shapeshifter is one of the few who could crop back up in the mothership Witcher show, since they seem to be unbound by the laws of space and time. Driver herself has teased that “speculatory conversations” about the character’s future have taken place, meaning there’s a chance we’ll be seeing more of SeanchaÍ in future seasons or spinoffs.
Until then, all four episodes of The Witcher: Blood Origin are streaming now on Netflix.
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