By As the filming of Netflix’s The Witcher continues and is reaching its final stretch with the six-day working weeks, director Ed Bazalgette has rejoined the crew to film the season finale and perhaps some of his scenes from Episode 5.
This week, we have learned, Arborfield Studios saw action, sword fights, blood, and gore as a major action sequence involving elves was filmed, presumably for the season finale. Though we do not know the specifics of the plot involved, the presence of Tom Canton (Filavandrel), Mecia Simson (Francesca) and Kaine Zajaz (Francesca’s brother Gage) and the huge production sets, indicate it is a pivotal subplot in the final episodes.
The action shoot took place over the entire week starting before dawn on most days. Eamon Farren (Cahir) and Mimi Ndiweni (Fringilla) are also believed to have been present during the filming. Perhaps this action sequence is connected to the sequence with Nilfgaardian soldiers and the trebuchets that we reported last time.
We can’t say whether the sequence has already wrapped or if it’s bigger than a one-week shoot and will continue through next week.
READ MORE: A busy month of Witcher filming involving mages, witchers, elves and Nilfgaard
Moreover, we have learned that scenes involving the famous detective duo Codringher and Fenn are being filmed. They too are expected to appear towards the season finale. We first came to know about the inclusion of the duo through an audition tape for Jacob Fenn from September 2020.
READ MORE: The Witcher audition reveals two key book characters are joining Season 2
In other news, Tom Canton confirmed the presence of Joey Batey who plays Jaskier. So far this is the only “sighting” of anything Jaskier-related on set. Aside from that, we did report a couple of months ago that somewhere in the second season we would be introduced to his passion, Countess de Stael.
Royce Pierreson also confirmed once again his and Istredd’s presence in the studio. This might indicate a further expansion of his character arc. Season 1 presented Istredd as an expert in elven history, architecture, artifacts, and excavation of elven historical sites. We expect to see an expansion of this in Season 2 and more interactions with Anya Chalotra‘s Yennefer.
And since Istredd would be meeting Geralt, as seen in paparazzi photos, maybe not a full scale adaptation of A Shard of Ice, but we could at least get a few nods to the iconic short story.
Aside from battles and blood, Arborfield Studios also hosted some other interesting cast members last week. Spotted at the studio were several wild and farm animals like huge Pythons, boa constrictors, emperor scorpions, rats, goats, and chicken. We are intrigued how these animals would feature in the series.
Reddit user KajaSinis also captured the following photos of the Arborfield Studios town set, it has grown a little bit since we last saw it and now we can see a huge green screen mounted there.
Redanian Intelligence will continue to update the fandom as we hear more information on the season plot and filming. Stay tuned for more Witcher news.
I wish the Elves have better appearance than in 1st season. Better costume and makeup and better choice of actors. Them did not look like elves at all in last season. I wondered what people they were when I saw them in the show. Weren’t Elves supposed to look kind of beautiful? Slim and moving quick and elegant?