When Game of Thrones wrapped up, the streaming networks immediately began commissioning shows to fill the swords, dragons n’ boobs-shaped hole in the viewing schedule. First out of the gate was Netflix’s The Witcher, which adapts Polish author Andrezj Sapkowski’s series of novels with heavy inspiration from CD Projekt Red’s bestselling series of video games. The first season was a big hit and Netflix quickly commissioned a second run with more to come.
That began shooting earlier this year, only to be put on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show actually had a case on set, resulting in the entire cast and crew going into isolation. Fortunately, there were no further cases, though it meant that they had to stop right in the middle of a major action sequence. The shoot is expected to resume sometime over the summer, but there will inevitably be some delay to the release.
But it’s sounding like it’ll be worth that wait. Showrunner Lauren Hissrich has been hyping up the show in interviews, saying she’s most excited about introducing new Witchers to the world. These new monster-slayers will include Kim Bodnia as Vesemir, Yasen Atour as Coen, Paul Bullion as Lambert and Thue Ersted Rasmussen as Eskel.
“When I talk about ‘The Witcher,’ I always talk about how these three characters coming together — Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer — they come together as a family. It’s the most important part of the series for me,” she added. “And 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. And one of the benefits of quarantine is the public has gotten to know these actors a little bit, because they are very present on social media and we’ve been doing bakeoffs and we’ve been doing danceoffs. And I think everyone has really gotten to know these actors a little bit better, too. And it’s exciting, because I think that sort of energy will be coming into Season 2.”
If the second season is as big a hit as the first, we should expect to see the new Witchers continuing popping up across the show’s reported seven-season arc. Personally, I’m most excited for Vesemir, one of my favorite characters from the books and games. There’s just something about this impossibly ancient yet still incredibly deadly warrior that rubs me up the right way and I hope the series nicely captures his grouchy yet professional demeanor.
Let’s hope we don’t have too long to wait until the premiere. At this rate, I’m expecting to see The Witcher season 2 sometime in Spring 2021, though perhaps it’ll be sooner if they can begin effects work before the shoot resumes. Fingers crossed.