Why did Trystan Gravelle leave A Discovery of Witches? (Baldwin Montclair recast explained)

A Discovery of Witches immediately gained popularity once the AMC show was added to Netflix, and I can tell you that I'm definitely not surprised. The fantasy series has all the elements to make it a success, and it's just so great to see. There's also only three seasons and they're not particularly long, so it's easy to get through quickly.

If you've reached season 3, then you might have noticed a different actor playing Baldwin Montclair, aka Matthew Clairmont's vampire brother. So why did Trystan Gravelle leave A Discovery of Witches (ADOW) and why isn't he in the third season? Well, it all came down to scheduling conflicts during filming.

Scheduling conflicts got in the way of Trystan Gravelle returning to A Discovery of Witches

Per the official A Discovery of Witches X (Twitter) page, the show shared a post sharing that when production on season 3 came into play, there were scheduling conflicts that came up due the COVID-19 pandemic. If you remember, studios had to shut down in March 2020 and couldn't start filming again until September of that year.

Well, if Gravelle has a familiar face, it might be because you watch The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The actor plays Pharazôn. In September 2020, ADOW season 3 was filming and that's also when Rings of Power season 1 restarted production after being shut down due to the pandemic. And so, Trystan Gravelle had to leave A Discovery of Witches and wasn't in season 3 since he was busy filming Rings of Power on Prime Video.

The actor who took his place is Peter McDonald. No offense to the actor, but I really didn't get the same feel to Baldwin from him as I did from Gravelle. But, at least this happened in the final season I guess. The series made it work. And we definitely can't fault Gravelle for taking on another role. This happens in show business sometimes, unfortunately. And as they say, the show must go on! McDonald is known for projects including Captain Jack, Woken, Mandy, and This Town.

All three seasons of A Discovery of Witches are now streaming on Netflix.