The Witcher's Joey Batey Was A Bit Nervous About Jaskier's Radovid Romance In Season 3
This post contains spoilers for "The Witcher" season 3.
"The Witcher" got a lot gayer this season. After the Netflix series spent its first two seasons crafting a world where magical monsters roam free yet compulsory heterosexuality still seems to be a thing, the latest batch of episodes is finally exploring the show's untapped queer potential. It does so largely through Jaskier (Joey Batey), the seemingly ageless bard who accompanies Geralt (Henry Cavill) on adventures to write songs about how hot and cool he is. Jaskier has always been a ladies' man, but he's also always had a rather queer-coded attachment to Geralt. In season 2, he even writes a breakup song about him.
Still, Jaskier's big queer energy has never led to any sort of gay romance, but the new season is set to change that with the introduction of Radovid (Hugh Skinner). Prince Radovid is the brother of Redania's king, and though he appears to be a drunken bachelor himself, he's actually an astute strategizer playing the role of the underestimated party boy. When he meets Jaskier, the pair share an instant connection that's bolstered by Radovid's genuine appreciation for Jaskier's artistic talents.
In an interview with Gay Times, Batey spoke about what it was like to play one half of the pairing, who get together without any discussion of their sexualities. Behind the scenes, though, it apparently took quite a lot of discussion to assure him that the show would be offering up significant queer representation. While Batey says he's been "interested in exploring other sides to him and also keen to get a bit more queer representation on the screen," he was also admittedly worried about possible missteps. "I was very excited and a little apprehensive, if I'm honest," Batey shares, "because I wanted to ensure that this was done sensitively and carefully; that it wasn't, in any way, becoming stereotyped."
It took a lot of emails to get the Jaskier and Radovid plot settled
It's honestly refreshing to hear an actor talk about putting a lot of thought into a queer storyline, given the way so many genre shows like "The 100," "Voltron: Legendary Defenders" and "Supernatural" have come under fire for mistreating or hedging their LGBTQ+ characters over the years. "The Witcher" fans are notoriously polarized by the show — later in the interview, Batey was asked about potential negative responses to the storyline and said that "in this fandom, there is a very vocal negative space" that he believes is actually the minority — but three seasons in, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich's take on the material has grown into its own unique adaptation. The Jaskier-Radovid plotline is part of that, and it's a part the creator and showrunner was apparently thinking about very early in the season 3 planning.
"I was actually approached by Lauren before the scripts were even written and she told me about her intentions with the character and the romance," Batey told Gay Times. In the end, he said, the plan for the pairing "took an awful lot of conversations with Lauren and endless essays of emails to try and figure out exactly how to do this, how to have queer characters in a fantasy world and not reduce them to stereotypes or let them become tokenistic." Batey also noted that he's thankful Hissrich let him give so much input, saying, "I applaud Lauren for that collaborative spirit."
A panromantic bard
While Batey noted that Jaskier — called Dandelion in the source material — doesn't seem to be queer in Andrzej Sapkowski's books or the popular "Witcher" video games, "it was wonderful to see a panromantic or pansexual person in such a flagship show such as this." Batey also notes that, based on what he's read, Jaskier could be the first major pansexual character in a flagship fantasy show. I'm not sure this is true, given that characters like Pedro Pascal's Oberyn Martell in "Game of Thrones" and the majority of the ensemble in "What We Do in the Shadows" (which is a horror comedy, sure, but definitely a fantasy show) seem to be pretty overtly pansexual. Still, it's exciting to see "The Witcher" finally embrace the spectrum of human experience in season 3, and it sounds like there might even be a long-term plan in place for Jaskier's love life.
"A big part of our conversations were working out, 'What is the history of LGBTQ+ relationships within this world of dragons and other things?'" Batey shared, saying that it's a continuing conversation that he's thrilled to "not only share with the world in season three but with season four and five onwards, find out where Jaskier ends up." Before that, we'll have to see where he lands with Radovid: the pair ended up hooking up in the five-episode first part of season 3, but their political motivations and personal loyalties might still be at odds.
We'll find out when "The Witcher" returns on July 27, 2023 for season 3, volume 2.