Doug Cockle has voiced Geralt of Rivia for nearly two decades in The Witcher video games but in late 2024 will reprise the role in an animated film for Netflix called Sirens of the Deep.
Speaking to IGN, Cockle said he was surprised to be offered the role in Sirens of the Deep — which will see the Witcher attempt to solve an escalating lovers' quarrel between humans and merpeople — and revealed what he found most challenging about bringing Geralt to the silver screen.
"I was not expecting to be asked to do that," Cockle said. "I was fully expecting somebody else to be doing that because of the Netflix relationship, because until I was asked to do the Witcher anime, I had no real association with Netflix at all, other than watching it. So when I got the call, 'Are you interested in voicing Geralt in the Netflix Witcher anime?'' I was like, 'Yeah!'"
Cockle felt very comfortable taking on the role, because "what I was asked to do was to perform Geralt as I've performed him previously," he said. The novelty of recording a linear story was interesting to him though, as Cockle is more used to the vastly branching storylines of The Witcher video game series.
Just one thing proved particularly difficult: speaking like a mermaid. "One of the things I did find really, really fascinating about it, though, and I don't think this is too much of a giveaway, was the effort to get my head around mer-speak," Cockle said.
"That was difficult. And I think I did the director's head in a little bit because I thought I had it, " he laughed. "I thought I was doing good with it, and then I could almost hear in his voice when he was saying, 'Okay, Doug, that was good. Now, let's try that again and let's think about this.' And I was like, I'm not hitting it. Whatever it is they're looking for, I'm not getting it.
"It's hard because the Merfolk speak... They're described in the books as having a sing-songy kind of lilt to their voice, and Geralt is anything but. So that was what I was really struggling with, was getting this sing-songy kind of quality into Geralt's, gruff, somewhat monotone delivery. It was a real challenge."
Sirens of the Deep was rumoured for years ahead of its announcement during Netflix's Geeked Week 2023. An adaptation of the Witcher short story A Little Sacrifice, it was even teased in a song during Season 3 of the Netflix show.
Cockle will star alongside Netflix's usual cast like Anya Chalortra as Yennefer and Joey Batey as Jaskier. Christina Wren will play Essi Daven, who's never before appeared beyond the original Witcher books. He'll be one of three Geralts to appear in The Witcher adaptations on Netflix, with Henry Cavill originally starring before dropping out after three seasons, and Liam Hemsworth taking on the role from Season 4 onwards.
"Geralt of Rivia, a mutated monster hunter, is hired to investigate a series of attacks in a seaside village and finds himself drawn into a centuries-old conflict between humans and merpeople," reads the official synopsis. "He must count on friends — old and new — to solve the mystery before the hostilities between the two kingdoms escalate into all-out war."
A Little Sacrifice takes place in roughly 1244 in the Witcher world, soon after Geralt and Yennefer meet for the first time in the Netflix show's Season 1 Episode 5, but more than 20 years before the main saga that begins in Season 2.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/the-witcher-doug-cockle-geralt-netflix-sirens-of-the-deep-speaking-like-a-mermaid