The premiere of the sophomore season of “The Witcher,” Netflix’s popular fantasy adventure series, is only a couple months away. Netflix dropped the official trailer for the second season of Henry Cavill’s blockbuster series heading into Halloween weekend. “The Witcher,” adapted from Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s book series, follows the adventures of monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia (Cavill), sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and princess Ciri (Freya Allan). While much of Season 1 was episodic and jumped across multiple timelines, the season ended with Geralt and Ciri battling an army from the villainous Nilfgaardian Empire.
The Witcher is based on a book of fantasy novels penned by Andrzej Sapkowski. The books follow monster fighter Geralt as he travels the Continent looking for coin. He has mutations and enhanced abilities that allow him to be a great fighter, but the Continent is prejudiced towards Witchers and he must also contend with being an outcast. Sapkowski hails from Poland and the creatures from his tales are all inspired by Polish lore. The Witcher books also spawned a series of highly popular games. The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt maintains that the show’s plot is based on the books and not Witcher III, the most popular of The Witcher games.
When season one of The Witcher left off, Geralt and Princess Cirilla had finally found each other after a season of twists and turns. Geralt agrees to shelter her as she is on the run from religious fanatics from Nilfgaard. What is most troubling is after sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg helped defend the Continent from the Nilfgaard force, she went missing. Fans hope to see all their favorites return for the new season.
The new Season 2 trailer centers on Geralt beginning to train Ciri; their relationship is expected to be a central theme throughout the show’s upcoming batch of episodes. Netflix’s Season 2 synopsis reads: “Convinced Yennefer’s life was lost at the Battle of Sodden, Geralt of Rivia brings Princess Cirilla to the safest place he knows, his childhood home of Kaer Morhen. While the Continent’s kings, elves, humans and demons strive for supremacy outside its walls, he must protect the girl from something far more dangerous: the mysterious power she possesses inside.”
The show’s upcoming second season will ditch the multiple timelines and introduce other witchers — Geralt is one of several magically-enhanced monster hunters within the show’s universe. Production on “The Witcher” Season 2 began in February but was quickly put on hold when series newcomer Kristofer Hivju (“Game of Thrones”) tested positive for the coronavirus in March. Production resumed in August.
“Piecing together what’s going on at any given time in ‘The Witcher’ is both impossible and insignificant. Netflix’s big-budget fantasy adaptation looks like ‘Game of Thrones’ and plays like ‘The OA’ — an extravagant budget fueling a ludicrous premise,” Travers said in his review. “Frankly, it should be a catastrophe, and yet the batshit energy driving a slew of increasingly odd choices makes for a pretty entertaining spectacle.”
Check out the trailer for “The Witcher” Season 2 below. The new season premiere December 17 on Netflix.
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