Tara McCauley October 5th, 2020 - 8:22 PM
On Monday, Henry Cavill (Man of Steel, The Witcher) shared a set of photos on Instagram of his Witcher character, Geralt of Rivia, giving eager fans their first glimpse into the Netflix series’ highly anticipated second season. The two-photo set shows Geralt in new black armor, wearing a white wolf medallion and brandishing his silver sword, via Variety.
Cavill captioned the images with a passage from The Time of Contempt, the second novel in Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s “The Witcher Saga”, the fantasy pentalogy that serves as the basis for both the popular video game franchise and Netflix streaming series. A quote from The Witcher’s source material does not come as much of a surprise from Cavill, a known fan of Sapkowski’s book series. Cavill, who recently played Sherlock Homes in Netflix’s Enola Holmes, told Vanity Fair that “with an [intellectual property] attached, more often than not, I am already a fan of that IP if I’m playing the character.” Cavill continued “for me, there’s a heavy responsibility to do the character as much justice as possible from the source material” (Vanity Fair).
Nailing Geralt’s iconic look became a major component of bringing the character to life for fans; it’s a process Cavill discussed with Vanity Fair in regards to the show’s first season and one that carries over into these first glances into season two. Combing over the details of these first photos, Nerdist comments “it appears Geralt is carrying a few handy bottles of the elixirs that enhance his powers strapped to his thigh.” Nerdist also describes the grizzled protagonist as “grimy”, a result of Cavill’s hours spent in the hair and makeup chair.
On August 20, Cavill posted a special shout-out to The Witcher’s dedicated hair and make-up team on his Instagram. The actor revealed that his season one hair was achieved through the use of a bald-cap that has since been replaced with “2 types of medical tape and some glue” for the show’s second season, via Instagram.
This behind-the-scenes post came just three days after the high-budget series returned to a socially distanced set in the UK after the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to shut-down production in the spring. Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones, Force Majeure), one of the new additions to The Witcher alongside Kim Bodnia (Killing Eve) and Paul Bullion (Peaky Blinders), contracted COVID-19 in the initial period of filming which has brought extra precautions to the set. Cavill mentions the safety of their production bubble in his Instagram post by saying “we get tested twice a week up here in Kaer Morhen.”
Kaer Morhen plays an important role in Witcher lore, as it is the home and training ground of the witchers, and will be featured heavily in the show’s second season according to Variety. The provided synopsis of season two explains that Geralt will transport Ciri to Kaer Morhen in order to keep her safe.
After Cavill’s reveal Monday, the official Twitter account for The Witcher indicated that there might be more news to come for fans of the fantasy series this week. The account reposted the images from Cavill, accompanied with a witty poem about Geralt’s new armor and a follow-up tweet that teased “what will destiny bring tomorrow?” Perhaps another character’s look will be revealed tomorrow or something else to send fans into rabid speculation for season 2.
And what will destiny bring tomorrow?
— The Witcher (@witchernetflix) October 5, 2020
Originally, season 2 of The Witcher was expected to air in late 2021, and there has yet to be news as to whether the delay in filming has caused any changes to that release schedule. However, showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich indicated, when speaking with The Wrap, that COVID-19 restrictions are “going to impact story. It will have to.”
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
