Ever since The Witcher made its debut on Netflix, one element has stuck with fans, both old and new: the song "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher," sung by the Joey Batey's Jaskier in order to bolster the reputation of Henry Cavill's Geralt.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-executive producer Jenny Klein -- who wrote "Four Marks," the episode that introduced Jaskier -- and composers Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli opened up regarding the genesis of the song.
"I wanted him to earn his stripes and possibly create a PR campaign for the Witcher because he doesn’t have a great rap," Klein said of Jaskier. When showrunner Lauren Hirsch came up with the idea for Jaskier to sing songs, "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" came to Klein when she was in her car.
"I was in my car and I was just feeling bad for Geralt not getting paid and that’s when I started to sing to myself, 'Toss a coin to your Witcher,'" she shared. "It was when I was driving and then I pulled over and fumbled with my voice memo to record the lines and then I rushed home instead of going to the errand I was supposed to be running."
Belousova said several versions of the song were written, ranging from medieval to contemporary, until the final version seen in the series was brought to life. Ostinelli explains they both fell in love with the final version and were glad that it was chosen. An unexpected revelation was that Batey was sick during the recording of the song; however, he managed to power through and delivered several takes.
The Witcher stars Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg, Freya Allan as Ciri and Joey Batey as Jaskier. Season 1 is available on Netflix.