Why Jaskier From The Witcher Looks So Familiar
Netflix has built itself quite a reputation for taking little-known actors and turning them into internationally recognized stars, and the streamer has continued the trend with its original fantasy series The Witcher. Apart from lead character Geralt of Rivia — played by the DC Extended Universe's Superman himself, Henry Cavill — the rest of the Witcher cast is comprised of up-and-coming actors. Among those are 23-year old Anya Chalotra, who plays Yennefer of Vengerberg, a powerful sorceress and Geralt's main love interest; Freya Allan, who portrays the young Princess Cirilla of Cintra; and Joey Batey, who brings to life the lovable but often annoying bard Jaskier.
The 32-year old actor is from Newcastle, England, and already has a number of acting credits to his name. In fact, many viewers may have recognized him from some other — mainly British — shows he has appeared in to date. Here's why Jaskier from The Witcher looks so familiar.
Joey Batey's work on The White Queen
Back in 2013, Joey Batey had a small role on the BBC One series The White Queen, appearing on screen as Edward of Lancaster on two of the 10 episodes that were released. The show — a historical period drama based on Philippa Gregory's novels series The White Queen, The Red Queen, and The Kingmaker's Daughter — lasted for just one season, with the BBC confirming it had always been intended to be a single-season miniseries. Set during the War of the Roses in the 1400s and telling the story of three women fighting their way through any means possible to get to the throne, The White Queen earned three Golden Globe nominations and four Primetime Emmy Awards nominations.
Since the end of The White Queen, a sequel miniseries entitled The White Princess was released, although Batey didn't reprise his role for it.
Joey Batey starred opposite Freya Allan even before The Witcher
One of Batey's more recent roles actually saw him acting across from his The Witcher co-star Allan, as the pair both played a part on the BBC's The War of the Worlds mini-series adaptation, based on H.G. Wells's 1898 novel of the same name but set in the Edwardian period of British history. The series centers on a couple, George (Rafe Spall) and Amy (Eleanor Tomlinson), who struggle to survive against "an unstoppable enemy beyond humanity's comprehension," all while facing an invasion from Mars.
While Allan portrayed a character named Mary on The War of the Worlds, Batey starred as the journalist Henderson, who met his death while foolishly attempting to communicate with the invading Martians. Given that his death is literally his only purpose in the entire story to set a serious doomsday tone from the outset, little else about Henderson is ever revealed to the audience. Thus, Batey's Henderson didn't have an extended storyline on The War of the Worlds (or much screen time, for that matter, as he only appeared on one episode total) after he was incinerated.
Joey Batey also voiced a dragon-vanquishing hero in Dragon Quest Heroes II
Before The Witcher was a television series, it was a video game franchise that adapted a series of novels and short stories by Andrzej Sapkowski. The Netflix show adapts Sapkowski's works rather than the games developed by CD Projekt Red (resulting in difference between The Witcher series and the video games), but everyone involved with the series is linked to the popular game franchise by association.
And, as it turns out, Batey has legit experience in the video game world. He holds a credit on the English version of the hack-and-slash action-roleplaying game Dragon Quest Heroes II, providing the voice of Cesar. While on The Witcher, Batey's Jaskier is very much the song-singing, somewhat-nervous sidekick to the hero who really does all the hard work, in Dragon Quest Heroes II, Batey voices one of the heroes, wielding a massive sword and vanquishing dragons himself for a change. Of course, how much sword-wielding and dragon-vanquishing he actually does is up to the players and how good they are.
The Dragon Quest Heroes II website outlines the storyline of the game quite poetically: "After a thousand years of peace, the Seven Realms suddenly collapse into conflict as if guided by a mysterious and malicious force. Now, you must lead a band of powerful heroes in a quest to defeat evil and save the war-torn world!"
Fans obviously didn't see Batey in the video game, but they certainly heard his voice — one that would go on to be a beloved part of The Witcher.
Joey Batey has previous experience dealing with knights
Also in a (slightly) similar vein to The Witcher (only in time period, if we're completely honest), Batey held a recurring role on Knightfall, a series produced by the History Channel that tells the story of the Knights Templar back in the 1500s. While The Witcher certainly isn't a historically accurate depiction of knights — we're pretty sure they weren't protecting dragons or returning cursed princesses back to their human selves — some fictional ones do play a role on the show throughout the first season, so Batey has had some experience dealing with king's men before being cast as Jaskier.
Knightfall delves deep into the history of the Knights Templar, with Batey's character Pierre acting as an undercover spy with a mission to find the Holy Grail. Pierre must report back to Roland (Cengiz Dervis), a papal agent who has been commissioned by the Pope to locate the most holy item throughout history, even if that means gathering criminals — like Pierre — to do so.
Is Joey Batey coming back for season 2 of The Witcher?
Other small roles of Batey's include an appearance on an episode of Stan Lee's Lucky Man, another single-episode gig on Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators, an uncredited role in Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool, and an unnamed role in The Riot Club in 2014. Batey has starred in one film so far, taking the lead role of Colin Montcrawknox in the British comedy-drama Bloody Cakes. He also made a few appearances on season 6 of the British comedy Mount Pleasant, portraying Gopher.
He's certainly kept himself busy since starting his acting career, and Batey clearly made his biggest impression yet on The Witcher, which leads everyone to question whether he'll be back for season 2. While no casting information for the second season of The Witcher has been released as of this writing, with Jaskier left alive and well at the end of season 1, it's likely Batey will be returning when the series returns in 2021.