'The Witcher' Season 2 audition tape hints Rience casting

A leaked audition tape for the Netflix show may have finally confirmed the rumours that the killer mage Rience will appear in "The Witcher" Season 2.

Redanian Intelligence saved and shared a copy of the video before it was taken down. In it, "Bait" star Edward Rowe is said to be auditioning for the mysterious role of "D." The publication described the character as a "hardened and experienced man, who is no stranger to killing."

The tape may have been removed but the transcript of the scene the actor was reading remains. In the script, "D" or Rowe talks about killing to another unknown character. When asked if it "ever get easier," he says that killing is just like any other job.

"When you were a boy and your father sent you to plow the field, your hands hurt first, didn't they? Then the blisters, callus, and the ache moved to your back, then you got strong and the ache moved to your head to the everyday monotony of putting your blade to the ground and tilling the never-ending roads of dirt," Rowe says adding, "Killing is no different than any other job. The trick is to know that the difficulty never goes away. It just migrates, becomes a duller kind of hurt. One you can learn to ignore."

Talks about Rience appearing in "The Witcher" Season 2 started in February, when the site shared a list of code names from a casting breakdown. One name was Richard, described to be between the ages 30 and 35 and is "fit and full of anger." A former prisoner of the queen, he is tasked to search for a "prized Jewel." He is "smart, cunning, and sadistic" and "will stop at nothing to get what he wants." He appears in three episodes of the upcoming season.

"The Witcher" fans believe that Richard is Rience given that in the books, he was tasked to search for Ciri (Freya Allen) following the fall of Cintra. In the Netflix show, Cahir was on Ciri's trail but viewers saw him die in the hands of the doppler assassin Adonis. Perhaps Rience resumes the search in Season 2.