The Witcher’s Cast Talks Ciri and the New Witchers Who Help Her Grow

The second season of Netflix’s The Witcher brings lots of good materials with it, from the rising relationship between Geralt (Henry Cavill) and Ciri (Freya Allan) to Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) rising into her magical energy. For Geralt and Ciri specifically, lots of their relationship is rooted in him coaching her to grow to be a Witcher at Kaer Morhen, a key location within the books and Geralt’s childhood dwelling.

Netflix has been releasing a series of videos going into the event of Witcher’s sophomore season, and two particularly are targeted on the remaining Witchers and Ciri’s character improvement. After spending the primary season working from menace after menace, Allan was excited for Ciri to each “navigate what she wants,” and to lastly be concerned within the motion.

“It’s very difficult to go straight into swordfighting routines,” Allan recalled. “So I had to do quite a bit of training.” When it got here time to do precise stunt work, showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich had glowing reward for Allan’s dedication, significantly when it got here to the impediment course at Kaer Morhen. “She couldn’t have loved it more…Watching Freya get knocked physically off of it so many times was pretty incredible and terrifying.”

Though Ciri needs to comply with within the footsteps of her surrogate father, he’s not the one Witcher she spends time with all through the season. Below, the second video shines a highlight on the opposite Witchers: Eskel (Basil Eidenbenz), Coen (Yasen Atour), and Lambert (Paul Bullion). All three are fan favorites from the books and video games, however they’re all arguably outclassed when it comes to significance by Kim Bodnia’s Vesemir, Geralt’s personal father determine who starred within the animated prequel Nightmare of the Wolf. Vesemir has been main the remaining Witchers for the reason that occasions of the movie, and Allan says that over the course of the season, Ciri involves respect him as a lot as Geralt does.

Every winter, the remaining Witchers go to Kaer Morhen as a result of it’s the place they “feel rooted as a family,” within the phrases of Paul Billion, who performs Lambert, . The shortage of their ranks have solely made their bonds with one another develop stronger, one thing you see all through the season as they assist practice Ciri and combat monsters collectively. “It’s about family and exploring what family means,” Bullion continued. “It’s what the Witchers represent.”

The household bond is one thing followers have needed to see within the present for a while, however the brand new season has thrown a curve ball that not all are proud of, and have left followers demanding solutions.

When Geralt and Ciri arrive at Kaer Morhen within the second episode, the reunion turns grim when it’s revealed that Eskel was contaminated by a leshen whereas looking it down. He’s then killed by Geralt, one thing that very a lot doesn’t occur within the books. Speaking on the present’s podcast on YouTube, Schmidt Hissrich mentioned how the method of Eskel’s grim destiny got here to be. They’d identified how they all the time needed to kill somebody, and it was necessary to ensure it had one thing to do with Ciri. Regardless of who died, that loss of life needed to to power Geralt and the opposite Witchers to comprehend her presence right here would change issues.

Originally, that loss of life was going to be for a model new character she known as “John.” But that loss of life wouldn’t have mattered, so it was modified to Eskel as to actually have an have an effect on on Geralt and spur him to really practice Ciri. “I know that there are fans who love Eskel and who feel like, why would we do that?…But honestly, his death is what changes everything for Geralt.” Part of the need to kill off Eskel and extra Witchers was additionally to drive dwelling the thought of the Witchers being caught up in a always altering world. “So much of season two is about the fact of, ‘Is the Witcher brotherhood over?’…Of course we had to kill more.”

Despite how bleak issues are for the group, Schmidt Hissrich believes that Vesemir nonetheless has some hope for the long run. “There’s this history in Vesemir, he’s the keeper of Witcher history…When Ciri and Vesemir are walking through the Kaer Morhen lab, we hear his retelling of the deaths of the Witchers, and suddenly why he thinks Ciri could be their savior. It’s that type of optimism that’s really important to Vesemir.”

The Witcher season two is out now on Netflix.