Main characters
Fantaghirò, portrayed by Alessandra Martines, is a strong and beautiful warrior-princess who is the main character in all five films. The youngest princess of three, she is outspoken, rebellious, and courageous, never retreating from a battle. In the first film, she is an impulsive troublemaker who grew up fascinated by weapons and adventure and who likes to provoke her father and sisters, but underneath it, she has a good heart. Fantaghirò is mentored and protected by the White Witch, also known as the White Knight, who teaches her to understand and communicate with animals; her own masculine counter-ego persona's pseudonym is the "Count of Valdoca". After Fantaghirò's mother did not survive childbirth, the baby was taken by the King to the cave where a ferocious beast lived, in order to be sacrificed there. The White Witch appeared for the first time in Fantaghirò's life to save her, explaining to the King the importance of the child.
From the second film onwards, the heroine is accepted as a female knight who will do whatever it takes to protect her loved ones, even if that means sacrificing her own life. She is deeply in love with Romualdo, previously the enemy prince and their kingdoms are now finally at peace thanks to Fantaghirò, who briefly vows to put down her sword forever. After she wins back Romualdo from her evil rival the Black Witch in the second film, they are married in the third film, adopting the orphaned Princess Esmeralda as their daughter. In the third film, Fantaghirò learns the secrets of dark magic from the Black Witch to rescue Romualdo from the evil wizard Tarabas, another of her suitors. In the fifth film, Fantaghirò becomes romantically engaged with Ares, a pirate from another world. She often rides on a white-maned palomino horse.
The series' writer Gianni Romoli said, "What fascinates me about Fantaghirò is that it is a female but also a male character, without any ambiguity. She is a friend, but also a woman partner, the one who both solves your problems and causes them." Fantaghirò has long red-brown hair which she twice cuts with a sword into a boy-cut in the first and second films, but in the third film onwards she only has a boy-cut. She tries to befriend all creatures and people she meets unless they try to harm those she cares about. In the first chapter, Fantaghirò wears a blue and orange tunic, the sky blue and gold being the colours of the heirs to the throne in Italian tradition, before disguising herself as a man in order to fight. She is very forgiving and looks past physical appearances. The role launched Martines' career.
Romualdo, portrayed by Kim Rossi Stuart, is a prince who becomes Fantaghirò's beloved and later her husband. After the death of his father, Romualdo seeks to end the centuries-long war his ancestors have waged against Fantaghirò's people by challenging her father to single combat. He falls in love with Fantaghirò in the first film and becomes obsessed with finding her, even as he is initially confused by her androgynous traits. He is shocked when he meets her properly for the first time, as she has chosen to replace her father as Romualdo's opponent, and is disguised as a man, and experiences an inner conflict over his feeling for his opponent. Eventually, he learns that she is a princess. The two are betrothed and their kingdoms reconcile.
They are due to be married early in the second film, but the ceremony is postponed when the Black Witch kidnaps Fantaghirò's father. Romualdo becomes the witch's next target and she puts a spell on him to make him completely forget about Fantaghirò. He becomes the lover of the Black Witch who sends him as her champion to a duel against Fantaghirò; however, he regains his memories thanks to Fantaghirò and the White Witch. Stuart named his character's alternate persona RomuAltro, saying, "In fact, ensnared by the Black Witch, I change nature. I confess that this new character amused me more than the other."
After that, Romualdo is reduced to a secondary character. In the third film, he is turned into a statue whilst fighting Tarabas' men and is only revived near the end of the movie, when the pair are finally married. In the fourth film, Stuart did not want to return for the role, so Romualdo was transformed into the hideously ugly Fiodor, portrayed by Riccardo Serventi Longhi. At the end of the film, Fiodor is transformed back into Romualdo. Romualdo does not appear at all in the fifth film, except in flashbacks.
The Black Witch (Strega Nera), also known as the Black Queen (Regina Nera), portrayed by Brigitte Nielsen (original Italian dubbing by Aurora Cancian), is the evil counterpart of the White Witch and the self-declared arch-enemy of Princess Fantaghirò. She is introduced in the second film as the vain and cruel ruler of the faraway Dark Kingdom who plots to destroy Fantaghirò and Romualdo's pure romantic relationship. At first, the witch demands to rule their lands, but soon she also begins to desire the handsome prince for herself. She lures them both to her kingdom by kidnapping Fantaghirò's father, who becomes her figurehead, the Dark King. She then turns herself into Fantaghirò to make Romualdo kiss her for a spell that turns him into her slave whom she orders to slay the princess. But Fantaghirò manages to outsmart her rival and the Black Witch is turned to crystal (later retconned to stone) and smashed into pieces. A part of herself is preserved inside Romualdo's mind until it is eradicated by the White Witch as she again comes to Fantaghirò's rescue.
However, the Black Witch's character turned out to be so popular that the director decided to bring her back for all the next chapters of the saga. In the third film, Fantaghirò and the Black Witch's former apprentice minions, Bolt and Lightning, reluctantly restore her to life because Fantaghirò needs the help of her magic against Tarabas, and the witch is forced to teach the princess. At the height of her power in the second film, she could transform herself as well as other living beings and objects near her into anyone or anything at will (including turning herself into an eagle and Fantaghiro into a bullfrog). However, once the Black Witch has helped the good Fantaghirò, her evil powers become greatly weakened. In the fourth and fifth films, she constantly tries to get rid of Fantaghirò so she can be powerful again.
The original script envisioned the Black Witch as a blonde. Director Lamberto Bava said that otherwise, she looked just as he and the screenwriter imagined her: "gigantic (between heels and helmet she reaches two meters), beautiful, with all the sexy power that transpires from her costume's abysmal slit and generous décolleté." Nielsen said she based her deliberately over-the-top "seductive, sinister, choleric, and excessive in everything" acting in Fantaghiro 2 on a deliberately greatly exaggerated interpretation of the character of the Evil Queen (known in Italy as Grimilde) in Disney's Snow White, adding she really enjoyed being "an angry and screaming witch". According to the Italian Wired in 2017, she was one of the reasons for the series' popularity in the country, described as "a unique and memorable character ... a majestic monument of irrational evil, busty and very tall, with heavy make-up and strictly black and skimpy dresses, the wicked queen is the ultimate glamorous incarnation of any fairy tale villain." Her wardrobe and hair colour (from long red to medium black) radically change between the second film and the later instalments after her resurrection, as do most of her other aspects. Nevertheless, despite having been reduced from an imperious and sensual villainess remembered for her imposing figure and cold gaze to a comically hysterical character in a much more campy, even drag queen-like portrayal in the sequels, the Black Witch has remained a fan-favourite and one of the few roles in Nielsen's career of which she remained proud.
Tarabas, portrayed by Nicholas Rogers (original Italian dubbing by Francesco Prando), is a broodingly attractive wizard who appears in the third and fourth films as the son of the terrible wizard Darken and the evil witch Xellesia, living with the latter. His name came from the writer Gianni Romo's passion for the comic book series Dylan Dog, where a character named Xarabas appears in one story. Rogers' role was known for having "charmed the female and gay male audience with his penetrating gaze".
He is initially a very powerful villain who is feared by magicians in every kingdom, but he discovers a prophecy that a royal child no older than ten years shall defeat him. Tarabas becomes obsessed with learning how he will be defeated and sends his men to kidnap all royal children, during which the parents of young Princess Esmeralda are killed. He crosses paths with Fantaghirò and falls madly in love with her, eventually asking her to marry him in exchange for reviving Romualdo, whom he has been turned into stone. Eventually, Tarabas lets Fantaghirò free from her promise and the two kiss once, restoring him from being transformed into a beast back into his human form, and promises Fantaghirò not to be evil anymore for her sake before she returns to her true love.
He then redeems himself with Esmeralda by allowing her to see her parents one last time, an act of kindness which fulfils the prophecy of his dark powers' downfall. Tarabas renounces his evil ways and lives in peace until the fourth film when he is accused of creating a destructive black cloud consuming all in its path. Tarabas reunites with Fantaghirò to track down the source of the black cloud and discovers that it was conjured by his father, Darken. At the end of the fourth film, Tarabas decides to renounce his love for Fantaghirò and stay with Princess Angelica of Tohor.
