Filming for Netflix’s The Witcher season 2 may be on hold for the time being, but fans of the series what to know everything that can be anticipated about Geralt of Rivia’s (Henry Cavill) continued role in the series. Cavill, alongside Anya Chalotra (who plays sorceress Yennefer) and Freya Allan (who stars as Princess Ciri), are all set to return to the high-budget fantasy show, which will most likely release sometime in 2021. Season 2 had begun filming early in 2020, but production was halted soon after because of the Covid-19 pandemic; however, Netflix recently confirmed that filming would resume on August 17th. What can audiences expect for season 2?
Although The Witcher received critical acclaim and was reportedly — as written in Netflix’s ratings report — watched by 76 million people, it was also the three Witcher video games it later inspired.
Given that Sword of Destiny, two collections of short stories that served as a prequel to the author’s main series, it is most likely that season 2 will draw from Blood of Elves, officially the first book of The Witcher Saga. The siege, the downfall of Cintra, and Ciri’s narrow escape are events covered in season 1, and Blood of Elves’s story begins a year later. This suggests that season 1 has so far acted as a sort of prologue to what comes next, which will see Geralt guide Ciri on her journey and protect her from Nilfgaard’s leader Cahir and others who wish her harm.
Geralt Becomes A Father-Figure To Ciri
Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, creator, executive producer and showrunner of The Witcher, has confirmed that the season 1 finale “Much More” is “absolutely where we will pick up in season 2. Geralt’s episodic monster-hunting adventures, which proved so popular in season 1, will also feature in this season.
The relationship between Ciri and Geralt, and the new dynamics that this partnership will create, are set to be a central theme in The Witcher’s season 2. In an interview with The Wrap, Hissrich revealed what to expect from this newly ed pair:
“What I think is really fun about Geralt and Ciri is they are the most unexpected family you can imagine. You have a witcher whose sole job is to kill things for money, and you have a little girl who is trying to escape her past. Coming out of season 1, you have a pretty good sense of who Ciri is, you have a pretty good sense of who Geralt is. And now we get to throw that all in a blender and see what happens when two people who are completely different have to be forced together… I think that their growth together into being a father and daughter is one of my favorite parts of the series.”
This therefore suggests that much of Geralt’s role in season 2 will involve his personal growth as a caregiver, and his evolution from a lone wolf hero to someone with obligations and responsibilities towards others. Likewise, in the novels Ciri hones her magic thanks to Yennefer’s tutelage; this means that season 2 will most definitely see the two characters together, and by extension reunite Geralt and Yennefer, contributing to further personal and potentially romantic development for Cavill’s witcher.
More On Geralt’s Past and Family Will Be Revealed
Netflix has revealed that Paul Bullion, Yasen Atour, and Thue Ersted Rasmussen will be ing The Witcher’s cast in In the Blood of Elves, Coën and Lambert play an important role in helping Geralt to train Ciri in witcher-style fighting. From this casting and from the events of the novels, one can infer that The Witcher season 2 will see Geralt bring Ciri to Kaer Morhen, the School of the Wolf’s fortress, the ancestral home and stronghold of the witchers.
Another important casting was that of Killing Eve actor Kim Bodnia as Vesemir, one of the oldest witchers and a father figure to Geralt. In the novels, he is one of just a handful of witchers to have survived the Massacre at Kaer Morhen, which killed almost all of the School’s witchers, and is thus extremely protective of the few remaining witchers; Vesemir also becomes a mentor to Ciri in the early years of her training. Geralt’s relationship to Ciri will therefore not be the only family dynamic explored in The Witcher’s second season. As Hissrich explains in the aforementioned interview, Geralt’s past will also receive more attention in season 2:
“When you start to imagine someone’s family, you also need to understand their family of origin. Sometimes that’s a mother and father, sometimes that’s blood relatives. For Geralt, it’s his brothers. It’s the brotherhood of the witchers. So I’m really excited to get back in and meet Vesemir, his father figure, for the first time and all of these men that he was raised with since he was seven years old.”
The Witcher season 2 will therefore see Geralt take on a fatherly role towards Ciri and will see him reunite with his own father figure and brothers. This will allow for a more in-depth exploration of Geralt’s early years, his training, and the witcher mythology as well as his interpersonal relationships. Of course, it would not be The Witcher if there were not also plenty of magic, monster-hunting, and political machinations, all of which Geralt will undoubtedly be drawn into as he strives to protect Ciri. With these on the cards, season 2 looks immensely promising.