By The Witcher season two is set to launch on Netflix in 2021 (exact date to be revealed), which means we may have to wait longer than a year to see Henry Cavill on our screens again as Geralt of Rivia, and more than a year before we find out what exactly happened to Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer. Thankfully, The Witcher‘s showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich has been teasing season two in various interviews, as well as on Reddit. We’ve collected all of her teases below.
Warning: there will be some spoilers for season one throughout the article, so avoid it if you have yet to finish the season.
Season two will ditch the timeline structure
“What’s great about season two, I can tell you, is that, in what we’ve written, the story becomes much more focused. There’s a stronger drive in the story, because all of the relationships that we’ve been setting up in season one, actually start to come into fruition in season two. Characters start meeting and interacting more. That goes well sometimes. It doesn’t go well sometimes. But it’s kind of like, all of those building blocks that we set up for the world, finally start to come together into something a little more concrete.”
SOURCE: Gamesradar
“The timelines were done mostly so we could follow Geralt’s story at the same time we were following Yennefer’s and Ciri’s story. What we’ve done by the end of Season 1 is bring everyone onto the same timeline, and their stories will start to intersect a lot more. I personally was sad that the timelines weren’t received as well as I hoped they would’ve been. I think they’re fun. But I think the audience lucked out a lot because, in Season 2, those were already gone anyway. So I do think that it’s going to be an easier season to follow. But I think more than that, the storytelling is a lot more focused.”
SOURCE: IGN
She also addressed the matter on her Reddit AMA, where she said: “This [the timeline structure] will definitely change in season two, as the stories [of the main characters] have begun to converge.”
Ciri takes center stage, Yennefer faces consequences and Geralt learns what it means to be a dad
“As expected from the saga, Ciri really takes center stage in season two. The whole world is after her, and she has to find safety and respite with Geralt (and eventually, Yennefer). Problem is, they’re complete strangers. She doesn’t know Geralt, doesn’t see why she should automatically trust him, and really doesn’t love when he starts making big decisions in her life — especially when she’s still mourning the loss of her grandmother in Cintra. For his part, Geralt dutifully wants to protect Ciri, but also doesn’t know anything about being a dad, and certainly doesn’t know how to balance that with the need to continue doing his job. There’s some comedy in how these two come together and eventually bond, but that belies a deeper reflection on what it means to become a family.”
SOURCE: RI interviews The Witcher’s Lauren Hissrich: ‘Ciri really takes center stage in Season 2’
“You’ll learn a lot more about Geralt. You’ll get to know where he came from and why he is the person he is in season one. With Ciri, she’s not looking backwards anymore or looking back at her family in Cintra anymore. She’s trying to build a new family. And Yennefer is going to be dealing with the Battle of Sodden. She took a big risk at the end with that firepower, and it doesn’t work out so well for her.”
SOURCE: Business Insider
Jaskier will soul-search
“One of my favorite moments with Jaskier is from Episode 106, when he and Geralt are sitting on the cliff’s edge, and he says ‘I’m just thinking about what pleases me.’ You have this character who has quite literally attached himself to the coattails of our Witcher, in order to rustle up material for songs. But what happens instead is… he finds a friend. Jaskier starts to think about what he needs and wants in the world, and in season two, we’ll see him begin to discover it.”
SOURCE: RI interviews The Witcher’s Lauren Hissrich: ‘Ciri really takes center stage in Season 2’
We will see another side of Nilfgaard
“About Nilfgaard. Yes, we felt like we needed to set up a ‘bad guy’ in season one — but it’s our hope that we’ve added enough layers to Cahir and Fringilla that the audience thinks ‘Wait, but they don’t seem insane. So what do they see in Nilfgaard? Maybe there’s more there than meets the eye?’ Perhaps we didn’t go far enough in season one, to see more behind Nilfgaard’s curtain — but it will definitely be explored more thoroughly in season two.”
SOURCE: Reddit AMA
Non-human races (such as elves and dwarves) will be further explored
“When I spoke with Sapkowski, we talked about what his books meant to him — he gave me a fair share of important points, but the thing that resonated most with me is this struggle between humans and non-humans. This can be extrapolated into our current real world in dozens of ways: immigration, racism, sexism, xenophobia, class warfare, yes. But it’s also as simple as old playground feelings of not belonging, feeling on the outside, feeling “other.” It’s something every single person can relate to, in one way or another. It’s really important, in a world of dragons and monsters and elves, that we keep the emotional touchstones of the show really relatable, so we’ll be continuing to explore it a lot in season two.”
SOURCE: RI interviews The Witcher’s Lauren Hissrich: ‘Ciri really takes center stage in Season 2’
On characters who will become important in season two
“There’s a character, Triss, that we meet much earlier in the series than we do in the books. It’s because I actually know what’s happening with her in Season 2, so I need to make sure that those building blocks are in place, so that story can happen. And for us, that meant moving a piece of the story up earlier.”
SOURCE: Collider
“We don’t yet have a target launch date for S2, past 2021. We don’t want to rush the product. That doesn’t benefit anyone. And we decided to save some tidbits of witcher lore until… you actually meet more witchers…”
SOURCE: Reddit AMA
“Oh, Vilgefortz. There’s much more to be learned about this particular sorcerer, and I don’t want to spoil that — but I will say that his temper is covering a great amount of frustration at things not going his way. “
SOURCE: Reddit AMA
“There are characters that we met in season one that we hired an actor for one episode in one season. I’m not going to tell you who these characters are by the way, and we loved him so much. It’s like, well, “How can we bring him back and make him a bigger part of season two?”
SOURCE: TheWitcher.TV
“Yes, you can always introduce more characters as you go along in a show. We’ll be doing that as well — there’s a whole new set of fun characters coming in S2. But it was important to me that from the very beginning, the audience know that this story is about Geralt, yes, but it’s also about Yennefer and about Ciri and — most importantly — about what happens when they find each other and become a family.”
SOURCE: Reddit AMA
And lastly, on potential LGBT representation in future seasons (also from Reddit):
“One of my favorite things about the books is that they are full of subversion. Yes, we’re gonna represent.” Does this mean we’ll get to meet the famous sorceress Philippa Eilhart in season two? We sure hope it does!
The Witcher season two begins filming this February. Recently, we were able to uncover what appears to be the first new director for season two, as well as a breathtaking location where the crew is looking to film (article linked below). Stay tuned with Redanian Intelligence for behind-the-scenes coverage, season two plot leaks and future casting news.
RELATED ARTICLE: The Witcher season 2 is scouting Scottland with a new director
Love the show!
Why do you even care? People responsible for the lore/story part of the show (Bagiński and writers) certainly don’t. They won’t suddenly start being amazing but will most likely continue to suck big time.
I watched it, already forgot half of it and moved on. Now I have absolutely no problem with the show because I couldn’t care less. Certainly healthier than being frustrated the whole year and then start anew after season 2.