The Witcher‘s final season is now in its second half of production with the cast and crew now working on the last four episodes for the remaining few months. As usual, Netflix is silent on castings, photos and other news, but today we have something quite intriguing as we finally have Shani.
Emily-Jo Young cast as Shani in The Witcher Season 5
We’ve learned that actress Emily-Jo Young (Sexy Beast) has been cast as Shani in The Witcher Season 5. She’ll be introduced in the second block of the final season, that is episode 3 or 4.
In Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, Shani was a medical student in the Oxenfurt Academy and participated in a small mission with Geralt, Jaskier and Philippa in Blood of Elves. Later, in Lady of the Lake, she was one of the field medics in the Battle of Brenna.
In the Netflix series, she was thought to be cut as she never appeared in Season 2, which was meant to adapt Blood of Elves. But now that Season 5 is adapting Lady of the Lake, Shani has been finally cast and not lost on the cutting room floor.
That leads into the question, will Battle of Brenna appear in Season 5? We’re still confirming that. No major field battle has been filmed outdoors with lots of extras, so perhaps we could see glimpses of the horrors of battle purely from a medical tent? It’s also possible that Shani will have a different role in the final season.
Shani was made hugely popular among fans with her inclusion in The Witcher games. She first appeared in The Witcher 1, but it was The Witcher 3‘s Hearts of Stone DLC that made her a fan-favorite character and a popular romance choice.
It still remains to be seen how much screentime will Shani get in The Witcher Season 5, but the fact that she’s included already feels nice.
The Witcher Season 4 is in post-production for a 2025 release. Andrzej Sapkowski’s new Witcher book Crossroads of Ravens is available in Poland and will be released internationally in September 2025. CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 4 is now in full production.
