By On Thursday, November 4, England entered its second pandemic lockdown. Fortunately for Netflix, this lockdown will not affect film and television productions, which means Henry Cavill (Geralt), Anya Chalotra (Yennefer), Freya Allan (Ciri), and the rest of The Witcher‘s cast and crew and will continue filming as scheduled. With the crew wrapping production in Northern England on Wednesday, production has now relocated to Frensham Little Pond in Surrey (image via A3Traveller).
Update 1: Geralt and Roach at Frensham Little Pond
Want some brand-new footage of the witcher himself Henry Cavill, galoping on a dusty road? Look no further. Thanks to Jeni Stutton!
Update 2: Two figures sharing a horse
EffektPodcast has graciously provided us with even more footage from the filming at Frensham Little Pond. In the video you see two horses and their riders against the backdrop a giant bluescreen and a drone circling ahead.
If you look really close, you will see that the brown horse is actually carrying two riders: One has long blonde hair and is wearing a light-colored dress. The other one is sitting behind the first person on the horse’s rear, wearing a dark-colored dress. The white horse is lagging a bit behind and his rider appears to be wearing a face-mask.
Our guess is that the brown horse is carrying Ciri and Yennefer, while the white one belongs to a member of the crew. Also interesting is that the brown horse looks very much like Zeus, the horse who portrays Geralt’s trusted mare Roach in the show. Why are Yennefer and Ciri sharing a horse? And how could they possibly end up on Roach’s back?
Since The Witcher will be filming at Frensham Little Pond throughout the next week, this is likely but one of many scenes to be filmed in the area. Since both videos were captured mere hours apart from each other and the crew has been using the exact same area, it is very possible that the scenes are connected. This means, the Witcher family could finally unite.
Original Article
Onlookers have reported that the beach has been decorated with fake snow, and several horses and wooden caravans were also brought to this location (as seen in the below pictures). Besides that, a huge blue screen (of the same use as a green screen) was also raised in another area. With caravans, horses, snow, and a lot of smoke against the backdrop of a beautiful English pond, we’re quite excited to learn more about this scene. Take a look at these images shared by Callum Mercer on Instagram.
According to the National Trust website, the Long Beach at Frensham Little Pond will be closed off to the public for a “filming project” but the circular walk around the pond will remain open. The website mentions that filming will last until November 13, which means the crew is staying there for an entire week.
Our best guess regarding the events taking place in Frensham is that this is a continuation of Geralt and Ciri’s storyline at Kaer Morhen. We believe the two horses in the below picture (via Debbie’s Daycare on Facebook) belong to the witcher and his ward, and that the castle could be added in post-production where the blue screen is now. The two have already filmed at various locations across England (Deepcut, Blea Tarn, Gordale Scar, and Janet’s Foss) under director Sarah O’Gorman, and fake snow was used in every one of these spots. Readers of Blood of Elves will remember that Geralt and Ciri spend the winter in Kaer Morhen, a fortress in a snowy mountainous region in northern Kaedwen.
The most interesting detail, in our opinion, is the presence of caravans. One of the most memorable chapters of Blood of Elves pairs Geralt, Ciri, and Triss (Anna Schaffer) with the dwarven warrior Yarpen Zigrin (Jeremy Crawford) on the way south from Kaer Morhen as the latter is tasked with securing the safe passage of caravans through dangerous territory. As it happens, Crawford has recently teased his return to the set, so it’s quite possible that the scenes filmed at Frensham Little Pond will cover this storyline.
The extended length of filming on this location may suggest a complex scene is being filmed there, or perhaps multiple scenes. One possible explanation is that the crew is filming a fight scene. If this is indeed part of the storyline featuring Yarpen Zigrin, we could be looking at a between the caravan guards and the Scoia’tael, an elven guerilla group expected to play an important role in upcoming events. Of course, we have already thought these scenes could be filmed at Fountains Abbey and eventually it turned out to be something completely different. We’ll have to wait and see.
We’re happy to see that location filming has continued even after The Witcher‘s departure from Northern England. Stay tuned for more details as we investigate the scene filmed in Frensham Little Pond.
Fake snow is now a must, otherwise everyone on the set would curse why this cold and wet exteriers wasn’t filmed in more healthy summer.
This pond is just a 20 minute drive from Aldershot where they were filming about a month ago, it seems as though Surrey is the real life Kaedwen
Thanks for all the updates
The Witcher family together? Please Gods🙏 2020 own us that!