Blue Eye Samurai casting adds Pryce, Booster, Cola

The Blue Eye Samurai casting was revealed at IGN Fan Fest 2026 on Wednesday, with Netflix pairing each new name with first-look character art, as reported by Bleeding Cool and What\u2019s on Netflix. Jonathan Pryce joins as Old Violet, Joel Kim Booster as Priest Ando, and Sherry Cola as Kuma. The news lands with the second season about three months out: Netflix's animated revenge saga returns in January 2027, sending Mizu's bloody quest from Edo-period Japan to London. No new footage came with the announcement, so the character cards carry the reveal.

The Blue Eye Samurai casting follows the series' big update at Anime NYC in August, where the streamer shared a teaser, set the January return window, and confirmed the long game. A third season will end Mizu's story, closing a three-season arc planned from the start by creators Amber Noizumi and Michael Green. The map splits in the new episodes. Mizu sails for London to hunt the men who wronged her. Akemi and Taigen navigate Edo Castle under a dangerous new shogun. Ringo searches for new purpose.

Meet the three new voices

Pryce gets the most intriguing role of the Blue Eye Samurai casting. He plays Old Violet, a name that carries weight for viewers of the first season. Violet is one of the four white men Mizu set out to hunt down, and the show suggested he had already been dealt with. His reappearance is a genuine puzzle. Noizumi has teased that characters thought dead may still be alive, which keeps both a flashback and a real return on the table. The first-look art shows a weathered old man with scruffy grey hair in dark friar-like robes, a cross cord at the collar, blood flecked across a face wearing a curiously warm expression. Pryce brings an Oscar nomination for The Two Popes and a turn as Prince Philip in the final seasons of The Crown.

Booster plays Priest Ando, drawn as a stern Shinto priest in a tall black eboshi cap and white patterned ceremonial robes. The design hints at where the season spends its time. Mizu's voyage points to London, yet a Japanese priest signals that plenty of episodes stay home. Edo Castle is the natural stage, where Akemi and Taigen face the new shogun, and a priest there could counsel the court or threaten it. Booster is best known for the film Fire Island and the series Loot.

Cola's entry rounds out the Blue Eye Samurai casting with Kuma, a young Japanese woman in a green kimono, hair tied up, a serious expression, bloodstains on her left shoulder. She stands beside another woman in matching attire, a pairing that reads like Akemi's orbit at Edo Castle. The spelling is worth noting: Netflix's branded card prints KUMA, settling it after ComingSoon wrote Cuma, as What's on Netflix notes. Cola's recent credits include the films Shortcomings and Joy Ride.

A long-planned ending

The Blue Eye Samurai casting keeps the show's patience in view. The series debuted in November 2023 and won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program, a serious prize for a show this fond of severed limbs. The first season ended with two twists at once: Swordfather and Ringo believed Mizu was dead, while she was alive and sailing for London with her captive, Abijah Fowler. A later reveal recast her whole mission, since the woman Mizu thought was her mother turned out to be a maid handed a half-Japanese child to raise. Her true parentage stays an open question. Maya Erskine returns as Mizu, with Kenneth Branagh back as Fowler.

Fan Fest also showed what the Blue Eye Samurai casting is part of. IGN billed the event as ninety exclusive reveals across games, movies, TV, comics, and collectibles, and the segment confirmed Green and Noizumi as the series' writers and executive producers. Green's credits include Logan. The season teaser already set the tone: Mizu and a crew of one caught in a storm, then Fowler, free again, pressing a sword to a battered and exhausted Mizu. More reveals should follow through the fall as the January premiere approaches.