Laurence Fishburne is joining The Witcher

“Casting news” has not been a source of much joy for Netflix’s TV adaptation of over the last few years—and, specifically, since that the show was parting ways with star Henry Cavill, who will be replaced as Geralt of Rivia in the series’ upcoming fourth season by the incoming Liam Hemsworth.

(Joining existing cast Anya Chalotra, Freya Allan, and Joey Batey.) Now, though, the series has gotten what we can only describe as a bit of unambiguous good news on the “people standing around in a very dirty world of high fantasy” front: Laurence Fishburne is joining in a fan favorite part for its fourth season.

Specifically, Fishburne will be playing Regis, a character first introduced in Andrzej Sapkowski’s third novel, , in 1996. The character description for Fishburne’s casting describes the character as “a world wise Barber surgeon with a mysterious past,” which, anyone who’s familiar with the character from the books (or video game, where he was voiced by Mark Noble), will know is leaving out some significant details, which we’ll certainly enjoy seeing the always great Fishburne sink his teeth into.

For a series that has moved from “genuinely interesting” to “seemingly troubled” over the last couple of years, it’s the first really exciting thing we’ve heard about it in a minute. As for Fishburne himself, he’s still coming off of his multi year run on ; credits in 2023 included and a voice role on Disney+’s , there’s no word yet on when the fourth season of is expected to arrive on the streaming airwaves, although the answer probably isn’t “any time in 2024.”.