Despite all the bad press Henry Cavill is getting, he’s still going to appear in season 3 of The Witcher and fans of the series are absolutely pumped about it. Now we’re finding out that the latest season will feature one of the most iconic locations from the original source material – The Witcher novels.
The place in question actually comes from the seminal novel Blood of Elves, according to Entertainment Weekly. The publication got an exclusive look at the script from episode one, and the episode’s title gives a hint that diehard fans of the series will immediately recognize: Shaerrawedd.
This is of course the ruins of the elven palace where Geralt and Ciri have a pivotal scene together in Blood of Elves. The episode is written by Mike Ostroski and it’s directed by Stephen Surjik. Surjik also directed the first two episodes of season 2.
The set itself is “one of the biggest we ever built,” according to showrunner Lauren Hissrich.
“It was an interior-exterior set. Every shot is visual effects. Obviously there’s a fight happening, but more than that, it is this big, open space. There are blue screens everywhere, so we are just now putting the final touches on it. Episode 1’s been done for ages, but it’s taken that long to get this setting right. I think it’s really important for the story.”
Apparently Hissrich actually wanted to introduce Shaerrawedd last season but never really found a good place to do it that felt organic. One of the reasons Shaerrawedd was chosen was to introduce a bit of Elven history to prepare audiences for the prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin.
Hissrich said the context will provide a better understanding of the story as a whole as well as show how different perspectives interpret history.
“We’re gonna hear Geralt tell the story to Ciri, but we’re also gonna hear Yennefer [Anya Chalotra] tell the story to Ciri. We’re gonna start to understand that everybody has a different version of historical events.”
Hissrich also said the prequel is going to provide a little more backstory about Ciri and her origins.
“It’s a great way to start to explain Ciri’s bloodline and all of the things that are gonna happen to her that come to the surface in The Time of Contempt,” Hissrich said. She also spoke about that pivotal scene between Geralt and Ciri about neutrality that goes down in Shaerrawedd.
“This is when we get Geralt’s main thoughts on neutrality and why he wants to be neutral. It’s a theme you will continue seeing throughout the season, right up to some of my favorite quotes between him and Dijkstra [Graham McTavish] about his neutrality offending so many people.”
The Witcher season 3 is premiering some time in the summer of next year.