Doug Cockle: From Witcher to Netflix's New Geralt

While Henry Cavill is widely recognized for portraying Geralt of Rivia, within the gaming community, Doug Cockle is revered as the definitive voice of Geralt in CD Projekt Red's acclaimed RPG series. Now, the worlds of Cavill's and Cockle's Geralts have intertwined, as Cockle lends his iconic voice to the character in the new Netflix animated film, *The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep*.

Despite not voicing the same Geralt as seen in the video games, Cockle was not required to mimic Henry Cavill's or Liam Hemsworth's portrayal, who takes over the role in the upcoming season of the live-action series. This allowed Cockle to maintain the distinctive, gravelly voice that fans have come to love for nearly two decades.

Cockle developed this signature voice during the recording of the first Witcher game in 2005. He describes the initial challenge: "The thing I found most challenging about recording Witcher 1 was actually the voice itself. When I first started recording the game, (Geralt’s) voice was very, very far down in my register. It was something I had to push towards." The long recording sessions, often lasting eight or nine hours, left his throat strained. Over time, as he worked on *The Witcher 2*, his vocal cords adapted, much like an athlete's muscles conditioning to the demands of their sport.

A significant shift occurred during the recording of *The Witcher 2* when English translations of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books became available. Cockle eagerly read *The Last Wish*, gaining deeper insights into Geralt’s character: "Before that, it was the developers from CD Projekt Red who taught me everything I needed to know about Geralt. So as soon as *The Last Wish* came out in English, I was down at the bookstore buying it, and I tore through it. And I understood things about Geralt just from reading just that one book that I didn't understand at all before."

The books revealed to Cockle the nuances of Geralt’s seemingly emotionless facade, a characteristic the developers emphasized: "The developers kept saying, ‘He's emotionless’. And I was like, ‘Okay, I get it, I get it, but I'm an actor. I want to play with emotions.’ But I better understood [when reading] the book why they were pushing for as flat as possible of an emotional life for him."

Cockle developed a deep appreciation for Sapkowski's writing, connecting it to his childhood love for Tolkien’s *The Lord of the Rings*. Among Sapkowski’s works, *Season of Storms* left a lasting impression on him, and he expresses a keen interest in voicing Geralt in a potential adaptation of this story: "It's one of those stories that when I read it, I was like, ‘Oh, this is horrible. This is awful.’ [But] it's thrilling at the same time. There's some really graphic fight scenes that Sapkowski gives to us, and I think that would be a really fun story to turn into an anime or a TV episode."

Currently, fans can experience Cockle's Geralt in *The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep*, an animated film based on the short story *A Little Sacrifice* from the *Sword of Destiny* collection. This tale, a dark twist on Hans Christian Andersen’s *The Little Mermaid*, involves a conflict between two kingdoms, with Geralt caught in the middle. While the story is filled with intense action and political intrigue, Cockle particularly appreciates its lighter moments, such as a humorous campfire scene with Jaskier that highlights Geralt's softer, often overlooked side: "Part of liking acting is liking all those different aspects of a character's personality and the different choices that could be made and how they might approach those choices. I enjoy the gravitas of Geralt when he's all serious and mopey and whatever, but I do also like those moments when he's trying to be light. When he's trying to crack a joke and it just doesn't go very well for him most of the time because he's just not funny."

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Working on *Sirens of the Deep* presented Cockle with a novel challenge: speaking in a fictional mermaid language. He found it difficult despite having phonetic guides: "I got phonetic spellings of the words and things so I could get familiar with it and hopefully be okay on the day. And then I got in front of the mic and… it wasn't like performance anxiety or anything like that, it's just that it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be."

Returning to the world of video games, Cockle will reprise his role in *The Witcher 4*, where Geralt will take a supporting role to Ciri, his adoptive daughter, who will be the protagonist. Although he knows little about the project beyond what has been publicly shared, Cockle is excited about the shift in focus: "I think it's a really good move. I mean, I always thought that continuing the saga, but shifting to Ciri would be a really, really interesting move for all kinds of reasons, but mostly because of things that happen in the books, which I don't want to give away because people, I want people to go read. So yeah, I think it's really exciting. I can't wait. I can't wait to see what they've done."

To delve deeper into what CD Projekt Red has in store, check out our comprehensive interview with the creators of *The Witcher 4*. And don't miss the chance to see more of Doug Cockle in *The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep* on Netflix, or follow him on Instagram, Cameo, and X.