Good and evil are set to collide in the second series of The Witcher
Henry Cavill was on the set of The Witcher when he suffered a scary injury.
The Jersey-born actor, 38, tore his hamstring while shooting the second series of the Netflix fantasy series, which has proved a big success for the streaming service since it launched at the end of 2019.
And, as the lead star with a lot of fight scenes (he plays Geralt of Rivia, a mutated monster-hunter for hire), it was a difficult situation.
“It was a rather nasty tear, grade two B; B meaning it was the centre of the hamstring, grade 2 meaning any worse and it would have been ruptured, and that means it comes off the bone,” reveals the star, who’s best known for portraying Superman in films.
“And that would have been a real pause in my action career, if not the end of it.
“We had already done a fair portion of the action, there was still a fight scene to come, and there’s still obviously being on my feet all the time, or walking around, or running around, even if it’s not fighting. So that was a tricky line to tread, to make sure I wasn’t further injuring myself and I was recovering properly.”
Following the off-screen drama, we look at the drama to come on screen.
Here is the lowdown on the new episodes – thanks to Cavill and other stellar cast members, plus showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.
The basics
Based on a series of books written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, the epic drama is set in the vast world of The Continent.
There, good and evil are not identified, and humans, elves, witchers, dwarves, and monsters live side by side, all battling to survive.
The story follows three main characters who have intertwined destinies; Geralt, Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and Princess Cirilla of Cintra, otherwise known as Ciri (Freya Allan).
There’s a law that ties the fates of Geralt and Ciri together – she is known as his ‘child surprise’ – and now he’s found her, he takes her under his wing.
She has mysterious inner powers she struggles to control, and he is determined to keep her protected as she commits to being a Witcher, and brings her to his childhood home of Kaer Morhen, where he thinks she will be safe.
Meanwhile, Geralt believes powerful sorceress Yennefer lost her life at the Battle of Sodden, but actually, she was victorious – and we will see her emerging as a changed woman.
Fresh approach
For passionate Cavill, it was really important to see the Geralt from the books exist in the TV show.
“I campaigned really hard for this, fought tooth and nail, wanted him to come across as the intellectual, have a real sense of wisdom – he’s been around for 70-plus years – and a soulfulness and, beyond that, to have three-dimensional male characters in the show as well,” he explains.
He was keen to bring the relationships between the witchers to screen, “not just conflicts, not just grumpy, old, violent men who live in the mountains”.
“Instead, it’s this brotherhood of soulful, slightly sorrowful, mournful warriors, who live a very hard life, but are capable of these incredible depths of love, because they have been alive for so long and all they have is this select group of people who are like them.”
Ohio native Schmidt Hissrich, 43, elaborates on how we see a new side of Geralt this season.
“Henry wanted to make sure that we weren’t falling into tropes of just a dumb male hero, who doesn’t say very much,” notes the writer, who has also worked on shows such as The West Wing and The Umbrella Academy.
“I didn’t see season one like that, necessarily; I don’t think fans saw season one like that. But it’s a very valid way to approach season two and luckily, we have a story that supported that.”
Sensitive side
Cavill also hoped to portray “male vulnerability and that it’s not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength, in fact – a sign of a bond, if anything”.
On this topic, Schmidt Hissrich brings up the bond between Geralt and bard Jaskier, who finds a new purpose in life as he joins forces with the elves to help save them from persecution.
“It’s the perfect representation of male friendship that we never, ever, ever get to see on screen. I think media does a great job describing female friendship – I actually see my friendships on screen all the time – and one of the things that we talked about this season, especially with Jaskier, is how he would be feeling after Geralt basically kicked him out of his life in season one.”
Exciting action
Returning to the character of Ciri, Allan, 20, had to try her hand at a new skill.
“I had to learn how to sword fight and also a few stunts as well,” notes the rising star, who hails from Oxfordshire. “It was a different challenge. For a moment, you get to escape doing all the really emotionally intense scenes, which are exhausting in that sense, and go to something which is more physical and more practical. It’s really nice to break up the filming.”
She also discusses how grateful she is that Yennefer and Ciri aren’t secondary female characters. “We completely have our own journeys to follow, which is how it should be, because that’s how life is. So, I love that aspect of the show, there are some brilliant female characters – and that doesn’t, by the way, necessarily mean that they’re always typically strong. They’re just multidimensional, they’re deep, and they’ve got their own things going on.”
Learning curve
Staffordshire-born Chalotra, who also starred in the TV series Wanderlust, explains how at the beginning of series two, we find Yennefer as a prisoner of war, and “she has to deal with the consequences of a sacrifice she made in the first season”.
“She goes on a real long journey of self-discovery this season,” continues the 25-year-old. “She’s really got to rely on her wits this season to get out of certain situations, and we find her, at the end of season two, with a new purpose.”
Asked what has stayed with her from this role, Chalotra notes: “There’s so much of her character in the book where she’s described as ‘beautiful’; I really struggle with that word, didn’t know how to play it, I thought I’d change it to ‘magnetism’, and that’s something which I really didn’t know about myself when I started playing Yennefer.”
-The Witcher season 2 premieres globally on Netflix on Friday (December 17).
