An intriguing social media post has left fans of The Witcher convinced Tormund from Game of Thrones will be joining the cast.
Of course, when I say ‘joining the cast’ I don’t mean there’s going to be some Winterfell/Continent crossover that will see Tormund and Geralt have a run-in, as much as fans might enjoy that premise.
Rather, it’s rumoured Kristofer Hivju, who brought Tormund to life in the much-loved (and then hated) HBO series, will be playing a new character in season two of Henry Cavill’s Netflix show.
Speculation began after a Witcher-related Instagram post appeared on the account of season two director Stephen Surjik, who has recently been out scouting locations for the new episodes.
He used a number of hashtags in the post’s caption, including ‘Witcher Netflix’, ‘Henry Cavill’, ‘Anya Chalotra’ and, most interestingly, ‘Kristofer Hivju’.
The first three hashtags make sense, given the context of the post, as Cavill and Chalotra are both established stars of the show; Cavill as Geralt and Chalotra as Yennefer. So the inclusion of Hivju’s name begs the question: what’s he got to do with The Witcher?
The Game of Thrones actor didn’t appear in season one, and there’s been no public announcement about him joining the team. Hivju has never even worked with Surjik before, but the director clearly deemed him worthy enough to include in the post.
The hashtag was enough to get fans talking, but Surjik added fuel to the fire by deleting the Instagram post, suggesting he made a mistake in posting it. Of course, his attempt at erasing the post was no match for the screenshot function, so eagle-eyed fans have been able to hold on to the apparent evidence.
The Witcher experts Redanian Intelligence decided to do some more digging and found Hivju has recently followed not one, not two, but three Witcher-related social media accounts.
Of course, it’s possible the actor only just discovered the show and decided to go on a following spree, but combine the findings with Surjik’s hashtag and it seems a little more than coincidental.
To top off the findings, Redanian Intelligence discovered there are connections between Hivju’s agent and The Witcher’s casting team.
Admittedly the evidence is patchy, but I think there’s enough of it to get excited about. With pre-production for season two already underway, hopefully it won’t be long before any new cast members are revealed.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.