Movies - TV
Joey Batey Was Apprehensive About Jaskier’s Romance In The Witcher Season 3
By VALERIE ETTENHOFER
Spoiler Warning!
This story contains spoilers for
Season 3 of “The Witcher.”
Actor Joey Batey expressed his nervousness to the Gay Times about the budding queer romance between his character Jaskier and Radovid (Hugh Skinner) in Season 3 of “The Witcher.”
It took quite a lot of discussion behind the scenes to assure Batey that the show would offer queer representation that was tasteful, authentic,
and refreshing.
Batey said he's been “interested in exploring other sides to him and also keen to get a bit more queer representation on the screen,” but he was worried about possible missteps.
He said, “I was very excited and a little apprehensive [...] because I wanted to ensure that this was done sensitively and carefully; that it wasn't [...] becoming stereotyped.”
To assuage Batey’s fears, “The Witcher” showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich carefully planned the Jaskier-Radovid plotline with the actor very early on in the season’s development.
Batey revealed, “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.”
He added, “[It] took an awful lot of conversations with Lauren [...] [about] how to have queer characters in a fantasy world and not reduce them to stereotypes.”
“I applaud Lauren for that collaborative spirit,” Batey concluded, noting that he's thankful Hissrich let him give so much input to ensure a decent and meaningful queer love story.