Laurence Fishburne will play a vampire alongside Liam Hemsworth in The Witcher season 4

Netflix's The Witcher show has endured its share of controversy over the years. By far the biggest bomb came when it was revealed that lead actor Henry Cavill -- who plays the silver-haired professional monster hunter Geralt of Rivia -- would not be returning for season 4. He'll be replaced by Liam Hemsworth.

Some shows couldn't bounce back from a blow that big, but The Witcher seems to have plenty of gas left in the tank; how else could they secure famed actor Laurence Fishburne? According to The Hollywood Reporter, he'll be playing Regis, “a world-wise Barber-surgeon with a mysterious past.”

If you've read The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski, you know that the phrase "mysterious past" is doing a lot of work. Regis is more than just a barber-surgeon, he's a 400-year-old vampire with much to teach our band of heroes. If you recall, season 3 ended with Geralt, the bard Jaskier, and the archer Milva setting out to find Geralt's surrogate daughter Ciri. This group is known as Geralt's hansa. Regis will eventually join it.

Fishburne is a big get for this or any other production. He's famous for playing Morpheus in The Matrix movies, the Bowery King in the John Wick movies, and — if you wanna go all the way back — Ike Turner in What's Love Got To Do With It. He also had a role in the Netflix movie The School for Good and Evil, so he's worked with the streamer before.

I didn't see Fishburne joining the cast of The Witcher but I'm intrigued. We'll see what he can do when season 4 premieres in (probably) 2025.

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