Here’s Who Gallatin Is in Season 3 of The Witcher and Why He Matters

Season 3 of The Witcher builds out the high-fantasy world of the Continent, with its countless monsters and continually clashing kingdoms, even further. Thanks to the events of previous seasons, it seems like pretty much everyone is hot on the trail of Geralt, Yennefer, and especially Ciri, the prophesied princess-turned-wannabe-Witcher whose elder blood seemingly holds the key to, well, name a plot point.

To highlight the raised personal and political stakes, The Witcher introduces several new characters in the first few episodes of Season 3. One of whom is Gallatin, an elf and warrior who creates more plot-handy conflict by clashing with the elven queen Francesca over the right way to find liberation for their oppressed people. Francesca believes that Ciri is destined to lead the elves to freedom in their promised land, while Gallatin believes that allying themselves with the powerful southern kingdom of Nilfgaard is their only hope.

Spoilers follow

While Gallatin initially appears poised to become a major player in the Continent-wide hunt for Ciri, he is swiftly and brutally taken off the board in Episode 3, “Reunion.” After meeting with the “White Flame,” Emperor Emphyr (who also happens to be Ciri’s father) with the help of his old friend Cahir, Gallatin is then murdered—by Cahir.

The end of the episode reveals that Cahir killed his friend at the Emperor’s behest, both to prove his loyalty to Nilfgaard, and to clear the path for Emphyr to seek out his daughter through Francesca.

Gallatin is played by Robbie Amell

While you might not immediately recognize the actor who portrays Gallatin on account of those prosthetic elf ears and the fact that he spends almost all of his screen-time covered in blood and dirt, Robbie Amell is a prolific TV star. After playing the quarterback love interest in the 2015 high school comedy The DUFF, Amell went on to subvert that trope in the horror comedy The Babysitter, as well as leading The CW’s The Tomorrow People, playing Firestorm in the Arrowverse show The Flash (which also featured his cousin Stephen Amell), and most recently starring in the sci-fi comedy Upload.

Gallatin is not in the original Witcher books

The Witcher is based on the bestselling series of fantasy novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, and takes much of its plotting verbatim from the source material—but new characters and plotlines are also invented solely for the show, and Amell’s character is one such example.

Gallatin does not appear anywhere in the books, and appears to have been created to lend more dimension and conflict to the scenes featuring the elves—and in death, to deepen Cahir’s character development.