Netflix just released the first five episodes from season 3 of The Witcher, the streaming service’s hit fantasy show based on the series of books of the same name by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which have also inspired a very fortunate video game franchise.
This third season—with the remaining three episodes set to premiere on July 27—will mark the end of Henry Cavill’s run as Geralt of Rivia. The iconic role of the show’s titular witcher, with his Targaryen-like hair and his wide array of grunts, will pass on to Liam Hemsworth, who will take on the mantle starting from the show’s fourth season onward.
One character who will not be recast anytime soon, though, is Ciri, Geralt’s child of surprise. Ciri, whose full name is Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, is the crown princess of the destroyed Kingdom of Cintra and has been linked to Geralt by destiny since before she was born—when he designated her as his boon for having saved her father’s life according to the Law of Surprise.
The two meet at the very end of The Witcher season 1 and start the long process of turning Ciri into a warrior and the two of them—three, since Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer of Vengerberg should definitely be included in this—into a family. Season 3 definitely has some more trials and tribulations in store for them, especially now that Ciri’s father has entered the scene.
So let’s take a look a closer look at Ciri and the actress who brings her to life in The Witcher.
Who’s the actress behind Ciri?
Ciri is brought to life by English actress Freya Allan, who was born in Oxford, England in September 2001.
The role of Cirilla is her first major one, after her studies at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire—ranked in 2021 by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the 15 best international film schools—and then at the Arts University Bournemouth in Poole.
Allan starred in the short films Bluebird, The Christmas Tree, and Captain Fierce during her studies, before booking her first television roles in one episode of Into the Badlands in 2018 and one episode of The War of the Worlds in 2019.
2019 is also when Allan began playing Ciri in The Witcher, a role that definitely made her known to the wider public and a familiar face in the world of fantasy entertainment. She was also nominated for Best Performance by a Younger Actor on a TV Series at the 2021 Saturn Awards for her work as Ciri. In 2020 she starred in the miniseries The Third Day, and landed her first movie role in the 2021 Netflix action flick Gunpowder Milkshake.
Allan has two more movies on the way: The first is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which is set to release in 2024, though the role Allan plays in it is still unknown. The second is the horror movie Baghead, of which not much else is known except that it’s directed by Alberto Corredor.
(featured image: Netflix)
