With Henry Cavill locked into the lead role of Geralt, which he actively lobbied for, Netflix is now looking for an actress to play Ciri in the streaming service’s adaptation of The Witcher books. Interestingly, they’re looking for a black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) actress to play the part.

The Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich previously took to Twitter to describe Ciri as “Resilient. Relentless. Brazen. Growing. She’s-going-to-change-the-world-and-what-the-hell-is-she-supposed-to-do-except-be-scared-and-be-bold-and-learn-and-adapt-and-find-a-family-who-can-walk-by-her-side-no-matter-what-and-maybe-just-maybe-teach-her-the-meaning-of-love.”

Although Ciri is depicted as white in the video game adaptations of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, there is nothing in the source material that specifically states that her skin is that colour.

Also on Twitter, a few months ago, Hissrich said this about her approach to casting the show:

“Will I move through the book and start changing people’s cultural heritage or ethnic makeup or gender because I’m feeling really “liberal” that day? No. That’s ridiculous and contrary to what ANY writer would do, because we are storytellers. Story comes first.

“But will there be minorities? Yes. A man would be a minority in Brokilon Forest. A person of color would be a minority in a small village. An islander would be an minority in Cintra. Mr. Sapkowski has said — publicly, and to me — that the Continent is big and diverse in its population, in every way (race, culture, gender, and yes, occasionally skin color, which he said he did not always specify). I’m not sure how people insinuate I’m destroying the books by recognizing that. I’m honoring the author’s own intentions. He told me so himself.”

Now, a member of the Reset Era forum believes that have found the official casting call for Ciri. The link they provided goes to a private site, so we’ll have to take the poster’s word for it. But according to their forum post, the casting call for Ciri says this:

“Looking for a 16 or 15 year old BAME girl who can play down to 13/14. Must not be older than 18 years old.”

If this is the official casting call, it sounds like they’re looking for someone young that can grow into the role of Ciri over multiple seasons. Promising stuff!

As Netflix’s The Witcher continues to grow its cast and move towards production, we’ll keep you posted with all the essential information.