Sometimes TV is so good, producers don’t even wait for audience approval. Such is the case with Netflix’s show The Witcher, a newish fantasy epic starring Henry Cavill. Although season 1 debuted on December 20, 2019—yes, we’ve watched; yes, we love—Netflix was quick to renew it almost immediately for a second season.
Other than gorgeous photos of the cast, we don’t know tooooo much about season 2 just yet. But we’ll give you what we’ve got—behold, everything that’s been #confirmed about The Witcher’s second szn.
Remind me: What’s the premise of The Witcher?
The Witcher is based on a book series written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The books follow Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter embattled with fate, through his journey across The Continent. He is joined by a sorceress (Yennefer) and a princess (Ciri). Together, the three must work to navigate their increasingly danger-ridden land, where humans, elves, gnomes, monsters, and witchers fight to survive.
Is season 2 of The Witcher even happening?
Yes! On November 13, 2019, Netflix announced plans to renew The Witcher for a second season, with a planned debut in 2021.
Showrunner and show creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich told Variety, “I’m so thrilled that before fans have even seen our first season, we are able to confirm that we’ll be returning to The Continent again to continue telling the stories of Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri.”
That’s not all! At Netflix’s Tudum event, it was also announced that the series was renewed for a third season and some more shows have been added to the lineup to expand the Witcherverse.
Will the core cast be the same?
Heartthrob Henry will return to play the lead role of Geralt of Rivia. Anya Chalotra will also continue in her role as the sorceress Yennefer, as will Freya Allan as Princess Ciri. And don’t worry, it’s been confirmed that all your other faves will be returning too: Triss (Anna Shaffer), Jaskier (Joey Batey), Cahir (Eamon Farren), Tissaia (MyAnna Buring), Stregobor (Lars Mikkelson), Artorius (Terence Maynard), Filavandrel (Tom Canton), Murta (Lilly Cooper), Sabrina (Therica Wilson Read), Yarpen Zigrin (Jeremy Crawford), and Istredd (Royce Pierreson) will be here to make you weep come season 2!
Are there any new characters this season?
Ohhhhh, you betcha. According to Digital Spy, “New cast members include Yasen Atour (Young Wallander) as Coën, Agnes Bjorn (Monster) as Vereena, Paul Bullion (Peaky Blinders) as Lambert, Aisha Fabienne Ross (The Danish Girl) as Lydia, Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones) as Nivellen, and recent graduate Mecia Simson as Francesca.”
Thue Ersted Rasmussen (Fast and Furious 9) was supposed to join season 2 in the role of Eskel, a fellow witcher, and even started filming scenes for the show, but he had to drop out of production because of COVID-19 scheduling problems.
“Sadly, due to the rescheduling because of COVID-19, I will not be portraying Eskel in The Witcher,” he told his Instagram followers. “It’s heartbreaking, of course, but I mostly feel happy and grateful for the days I got to spend on-set earlier this year. Everyone was extremely engaged and passionate about the project and it was a truly inspiring experience.”
Is there a trailer for the second season yet?
Sorry, boo—there’s no official trailer just yet, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t seen anything from season 2. During Netflix’s Tudum presentation, they showed not just one but two brand-new clips from the upcoming second season.
In the first clip, Geralt and an old friend, Nivellan, talk about a huge secret that Geralt is hiding.
Geralt wakes up Ciri in the second clip and tells her to run after finding out there’s a Bruxa in the house.
What’s the deal with production though?
It’s no secret that this year has been beyond weird for TV and film projects because of the pandemic, but there are *some* updates. Production for The Witcher halted in March, but this informative Insta post from director Stephen Surji revealed that filming resumed on August 13.
Even so, filming hit major trouble recently. According to The Sun, Henry is currently suffering from an injury from an “assault course” that legit included “swinging axes,” which has allegedly caused production to go into “chaos.”
“The filming has been hit because of what happened to Henry. He was on an assault course and injured his leg,” the source told The Sun. “He just suddenly pulled up and was clearly in a lot of pain. It wasn’t clear if an object had hit his leg or it was some sort of hamstring or muscle injury.”
The source added, “It wasn’t bad enough to need an ambulance but it’s messed up the filming schedule as he can’t walk properly. He has to wear heavy armor in the scenes and he just wouldn’t be able to do it with his leg injury.’’ Biiiiig yikes.
Don’t wanna leave you on totally bad news though, so here are a few positive nuggets of info—Netflix already approved a series prequel film, titled The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf! A brief synopsis, via Eurogamer, says it follows the character Vesemir. “Long before mentoring Geralt, Vesemir begins his own journey as a witcher after the mysterious Deglan claims him through the Law of Surprise.”
And since the creators wanna keep us fed, they’re giving us a whole live-action prequel series called The Witcher: Blood Origin at some point. There’s already a synopsis for that from Netflix, which reads:
“Set in an elven world 1,200 years before the world of The Witcher, Blood Origin will tell a story lost to time—the origin of the very first witcher and the events that led to the pivotal ‘conjunction of the spheres,’ when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one.”
Stay tuned for more updates, obvi.
