By Filming for the second season of The Witcher is still ongoing within the medieval ruins of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire and thanks to an avid local photographer we have a big late-night surprise!
The following pictures were taken by Peter Lau and show several of the show’s most prominent mages walking alongside each other in their costumes.
UPDATE 03/11/2020: And here are two more photos of the mages from yesterday, also courtesy of Peter Lau on Facebook.
The last photo is especially interesting as it shows Eamon Farren‘s Vicovarian knight Cahir sporting a big bushy beard. Two more details stand out a first glance: Cahir appears to be shirtless underneath his jacket and he’s still wearing the trousers and boots, we came to know as part of season one’s controversial Nilfgaardian armor attire.
From that and the rugged look it’s not a huge stretch to infer that Cahir will probably be taken prisoner in the aftermath of the Battle of Sodden. It is clear now, that we’ll be seeing today’s scenes in an earlier episode than the sequence captured at Fountains Abbey last week, which featured a beardless Cahir, clad in new armor.
Model and actress Zina Wheater was on location as well. She was set to play a character called High Consular. Could she be the woman, whose face we can’t fully see?
These are very interesting pictures and give us a lot more to speculate. What exactly are the mages doing there and what will be Cahir’s part in the gathering? Will they interact with Shaun Dooley’s King Foltest and possibly other monarchs also set to film for The Witcher soon? Who is the new mage that we haven’t identified yet? Leave your theories in the comments below or on our twitter.
Maybe the mystery mage is Lydia, Vilgefortz’s assistant. The actress has her face turned away, so we can’t see if she has facial and neck scars
Thanks for the pics. An important question: where is Philippa and what is Stregobor doing there? I hope Geralt slays him during the Thanedd coup.
I want this so badly👋
Where is Henry and the witchers? How we didn’t get anything for them? I hope they won’t rush Ciri’s training at Kaer Morhen. We need Geralt & Ciri as father and daughter. Hopefully Lauren Hissrich won’t screw that part which is the heart of The Witcher nor she’ll neglect the main trio as a family.
I believe we’ll get that part. They filmed the first episode which has Geralt and Ciri in “A grain of truth” short story before the 1st lockdown and they begun shooting again in August and we got several spoilers about the Kaer Morhen parts and new monsters (recently they were filming at Lake District with Henry Cavill and the actor who plays Lambert). I believe we didn’t get pics because the locations were more isolated. Imo it’s better to be surprised.
The scenes for Kaer Morhen has already been filmed at Aborfield Studios, they are now shooting all the on-location stuff
I wonder how we’ll go from Cahir in his new armor to being captive of the brotherhood and to Yen from being a prisoner of the elves to the mages’ meeting and to her scenes with Ciri. How much time s2 will cover?
If these scenes are from the aftermath of the battle of Sodden what is Yennefer doing there!? Isn’t she suppose to be considered dead?
From Cahir’s beard it must be months after battle, and Geralt go to battlefield 1-2 days after battle for false info about Yenn death.
The uppermost picture seems to be the aftermath of the battle of Sodden Hill. Triss should not be in the picture because at that point she is considered to be dead. I very much hope that later in the show she will appear with upgraded costume, hair (color!) and makeup. There are many mages appearing which play marginal parts in the books, but so far, Phillipa Eilhart is missing. I wonder why, she is an important character in the books. I hope she’ll appear and I also hope that she will be given good lines and be played by a good actress and not some random model to save costs. I can envisage German actress Antje Traue as a very good choice. Certainly she can convince Geralt that by the course of evolution, he should just be a sad silk trader. Moreover, I think she doesn’t shy away from on-screen lesbomancy – if I may use this term here.
I guess the uppermost picture is a still from S1 E8, not from season 2. Otherwise I agree with everything you mentioned.
Maybe we see the negotiations to stop the war after the battle of Sodden? But why is Yennefer here? According to earlier speculations she’s a prisoner of the elves/Francesca after the battle. I’m thinking in the first episodes we’ll see the war going on between Foltest’s army and Nilfgaard while Yen is held by Francesca and while Geralt travels to Kaer Morhen with Ciri and trains her and the negitiations/pause of the war takes place mid-season when Yen’s back with the mages and before Geralt travels with Ciri to Ellander. It also seems Cahir (with the new armor) and fringilla will form an alliance between the elves and Nilfgaard (the pics we saw earlier) and maybe they’ll attack Geralt and his company on their way to Ellander. That’s what I can peace together from the spoilers.
*piece together