Season 2 of Netflix’s The Witcher saw the introduction of a new character, Rience, portrayed by Chris Fulton.
Rience was a fiery villain — literally and figuratively — being a fire mage.
In Season 2, viewers were introduced to this character as he relentlessly pursued Ciri (Freya Alan).
Rience had been unable to track down Ciri until he heard a particular song by Jaskier (Joey Batey) and then trapped the bard and tortured him to gain information about Ciri’s whereabouts.
Luckily for Jaskier, Yennifer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) turned up and managed to rescue him and they fled from Rience.
Rience’s pursuit will continue in Season 3 of The Witcher but, this time, the character will be portrayed by a new actor.
Rience has been recast in Season 3 of The Witcher
According to Redanian Intelligence, a fan website dedicated to all things pertaining to The Witcher, Chris Fulton has been replaced by Sam Woolf as Rience in Season 3.
Sam Woolf is also billed to portray Prince Edward in Netflix’s The Crown. Recently, he also stared in Theodosia and Strike, according to his IMDb page.
This news has not been officially confirmed by Netflix or the actors and Redanian Intelligence has not listed the source of their information. However, the website has regularly provided information regarding the epic fantasy series well before it has been officially released and many consider it to be a valuable and reliable source of information.
Of course, because it hasn’t been officially confirmed, fans should take this information at face value and wait until further confirmation from Netflix arises.
As yet, there’s been no reason stated regarding why Chris Fulton has left the series either. Although, potentially, it could be a schedule conflict that saw the actor having to drop out.
Rience’s Season 3 storyline
Rience did not capture Ciri in Season 2 of The Witcher so viewers can look forward to the chase continuing in Season 3.
In the book series, written by Andrzej Sapkowski, Rience is expected to show up again at the Thanedd Coup.
Already, it is believed that filming has commenced on this important part of book three, Time of Contempt, when Vilgefortz of Roggeveen (Mahesh Jadu) tries to lure Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) to his side as Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms fight against each other.
Because Geralt likes to remain neutral when it comes to politics, he is hard-pressed to join the cause.
However, it is during this time that Rience tries to take Ciri and conflict ensued.
As to whether or not this plays out the same in the TV series remains to be seen and viewers will just have to tune into Season 3 to find out more about what happens next.
Season 2 of The Witcher is currently available to stream on Netflix.