Get your coins ready to toss, because there’s even more The Witcher goodness coming your way, courtesy of a flurry of announcements out of WitcherCon. On top of the season premiere date (December 17, 2021) and some first-look photos and the names of the episodes, Netflix also debuted the season 2 trailer, and you can watch it right now.
Forging a New Family
From the trailer, it looks like the focus of season 2 will be on the relationship between Witcher Geralt (Henry Cavill) and Ciri (Freya Allan) after they were finally united at the very end of last season. Fans of the novels and games that the show is based on know that Geralt serves as a kind of father figure to Ciri, but this season will see them finding their footing. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich explained the importance of watching their relationship grow.
“At the end of Season 1, we have what I think is one of the sort of most emotional scenes that we’ve done, which is Geralt and Ciri finding each other after they’ve both been searching all season… And it seems like we’ve got a father figure and daughter figure, and everything’s going to be perfect at that point, except for they’ve never met,” she said in a press release. “And so it was really fun to start Season 2 thinking about, well, they’re not a family yet. How do they grow to be one?”
For Ciri and Geralt, it looks like their long trek through the woods and some sword training are the start of forming their bond.
Becoming a Witcher
Geralt takes Ciri to Kaer Morhen, an old castle keep where the witchers of the School of the Wolf (including Geralt) trained. It’s a homecoming for him, but somewhere entirely new for young Ciri. She’s in hiding, but she also has to try to make some kind of life for herself. She begins training under Geralt and the other witchers to become one herself, something Freya Allan was excited about:
“[Training] was one of the things I was most excited about for season 2, because I love doing all that. I love the stunt department. We have the best people involved, and they’re so much fun and get the best out of you. But yes, Ciri begins training and it actually becomes one of her main kind of drives. She’s very determined, and she really wants to become a great fighter and become a Witcher.”
It’s hard not to see some of Geralt in Ciri – they have a similar drive and tenacity that’s hard to deny. Whether those similarities will cause them to grow closer or distant from one another has yet to be seen.
The World of the Witcher Grows
A new season and new story location means new characters, and season 2 of The Witcher delivers. There’s Dijkstra (Graham McTavish), a master spy and head of the forces of the kingdom of Redania, a hulking seven-foot-tall man who always gets what he’s owed. Then there’s Philippa (Cassie Clare), a sorceress in the Redanian Kingdoms who can change her shape. There’s also the detective agents Codringher and Fenn (Simon Callow and Liz Carr), Rience (Chris Fulton), a mage who’s tracking Ciri, and Nenneke (Adjoa Andoh), a priestess healer and leader of the temple of the mother goddess Melitele.
Perhaps most importantly, we also get to meet Vesemir (Kim Bodnia), an elder witcher who served as Geralt’s father figure. After all, Geralt is being forced to learn how to be a father himself now.
Some things haven’t changed much since last season. The bard Jaskier (Joey Batey) is back, though whether he’ll be able to top “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” is anyone’s guess. Triss (Anna Shaffer) will be back to heal and steal all of our hearts. And, as always, no one knows where Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) is, but she’s sure to cause some trouble for Geralt.
The Witcher season 2 debuts on Netflix on December 17, 2021.
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