Jaskier's scene in The Witcher: Blood Origin trailer might potentially lay the groundwork for a major The Witcher storyline. While The Witcher seasons 1 and 2 touched on the idea of different realms, notably through allusions to the Conjunction of the Spheres and the presence of portal-like monoliths in season 2, the importance of multiversal travel to Andrzej Sapkowski's series of novels has not yet been explored to the same extent on TV. However, The Witcher: Blood Origin looks set to dig into not only the creation of the Witchers but also to introduce The Witcher's multiverse.
Jaskier's presence in The Witcher: Blood Origin's trailer might be surprising given the spin-off takes place over a millennium before The Witcher. The prequel is set before the Conjunction of the Spheres and aims to tackle both that event's seismic impact on the Continent, the creation of the Witchers, and the Elven empire. Jaskier is being used as the "connective tissue," as his actor Joey Batey describes him to EW, between the two Witcher properties. Jaskier is tasked by Minnie Driver's Seanchaí, a shape-shifting Elf who can travel between realms, with singing "a story back to life." These realm-traveling hijinks potentially lay the foundations for The Witcher novels' central multiversal story, Ciri's journey to Camelot.
Witcher Needs To Prep For Its Camelot Story (So It Doesn't Ruin The Show)
The Witcher's Ciri is capable of multiversal travel because of her Elder blood, which opens up countless narrative opportunities well beyond The Witcher's high fantasy context. While it is possible that Netflix will take the show in a different direction, one of the realms that Sapkowski had Ciri end up in is an Arthurian world resembling Camelot and a character called Galahad. Blood Origin, via Jaskier and Seanchaí's conversations about lore and storytelling, will likely aim to normalize the idea of the King Arthur myth in The Witcher's universe.
However, the main Witcher show has not yet established the multiverse in detail, which is why Blood Origin could play an essential role. By showing audiences the vast array of timelines and alternate realms fashioned by the Conjunction of the Spheres, while keeping the characters and storylines grounded in Witcher lore, it will help audiences become more comfortable with the idea of Ciri traveling to an Arthurian world and interacting with familiar mythological figures like Galahad. Without Blood Origin's groundwork, such fantastical plot points might otherwise feel jarring or even unearned.
A Blood Origins Camelot Storyline Makes Toss A Coin To Your Witcher Vital
That Sapkowski has Ciri travel to a Camelot world feels like an Easter egg alluding to Sapkowski's own Arthurian influences in creating his Witcher universe. It is a story largely about storytelling. In turn, much of The Witcher's novels, games, and TV shows are about the power of storytelling as tools of creation. That The Witcher's Jaskier is tasked with singing a story "back to life" could suggest Blood Origin focuses on how stories and myths become history. This is especially true for an event as cataclysmic as the Conjunction of the Spheres, in which the concept of objective history is warped by the fragmenting of realms.
The actual lore of the world might be lost unless a storyteller with the pedigree of Jaskier makes the lore real through his art. That, after all, is how Geralt's legend grows, through Jaskier's singing "Toss A Coin To Your Witcher." There is something comically meta about the choice to have Jaskier be the "connective tissue," given how much of a hit song "Toss A Coin To Your Witcher" has become both in real life and in The Witcher world. Only someone with his storytelling prowess in The Witcher: Blood Origin could make an Arthurian story ring true in-universe.