Warning: Spoilers for Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf
Netflix in December 2019.
Netflix’s The Witcher approached Sapkowski’s stories differently and went for a non-linear narrative by following three characters in different places and points in time, with their paths converging towards the end of the season. As confusing as the narrative was sometimes, viewers got to know Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan) quite well, but there are still many questions about the universe of The Witcher that viewers are hoping will be answered soon. Luckily, the success of The Witcher season 1 made way for some spinoff projects, the first one being the animated movie The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, which tells the backstory of Vesemir (voiced by Theo James), as well as that of his relationship with Geralt.
Nightmare of the Wolf takes viewers back many, many years before Geralt became the famous witcher he now is and focuses on the story of his mentor, Vesemir. The movie explores his childhood, his decision to become a witcher, and how he took the role of mentor to Geralt and three other witchers (among those Eskel and Lambert, who will The Witcher in season 2) after Kaer Morhen was destroyed and he was the last witcher standing. Vesemir’s road to becoming a witcher wasn’t easy, and he was marked by everything he witnessed during his training and the process known as the “Trial of the Grasses”, so by the time he was an adult, he hated children as he saw his friends die during the trials and knew well what was going to happen to the kids that were brought to Kaer Morhen.
Due to all the mutations they go through, Nightmare of the Wolf ends with a young Geralt taking one of the medallions as he and his colleagues Vesemir, it’s well-known that the veteran witcher goes on to become a father figure to him, Eskel, and Lambert, so he surely changed his view on children as he became the last witcher standing after the fall of Kaer Morhen.
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf not only helped viewers learn about Vesemir’s origins but also how he became the father figure to Geralt and the other witchers, and he had to go through a lot to reach that phase. This will definitely help the audience have a better understanding of Vesemir when he appears in The Witcher season 2, where (hopefully) his relationship will Geralt will be explored in-depth.
