By The Witcher has recently halted production after four crew members tested positive for COVID 19, marking the second pandemic intermission of the Henry Cavill series. While the cast and crew await the greenlight to proceed with filming, we were able to uncover new details of a scene shot a very long time ago in Bourne Wood, Surrey.
We first reported on the filming of this sequence back in February. Back then, we shared pictures from the location featuring numerous dead bodies scattered across the green hills of Bourne Wood. Today, we have new pictures and details courtesy of production enthusiast Sara Talib, who was lucky enough to see the crew in action back in February. Talib most recently captured videos of Henry Cavill and Anya Chalotra’s stunt double filming a scene at Frensham Little Pond, so if you missed that do check it out as well.
From what we were told, the scene featured not just bodies but also many fires. Our source informed us that there were multiple cast members on location, including one who was screaming “Yennefer” rather loudly. Our source believes the screamer was Tissaia de Vries (played by MyAnna Buring), and that would certainly make sense as she was last seen searching for Yennefer on the scorched battlefield at Sodden Hill at the end of season one.
Talib has also provided us two short videos taken on location in February. In the first video, we can see the crew decorating the location with body parts: prop horse limbs and headless human bodies. We can also see fake rocks that were placed there.
In the second video, we can see the crew preparing the location by spraying a substance on the grass. This could have been fake snow or some form of coloration.
We hope The Witcher‘s cast and crew are keeping safe in England and wish the affected crew members a speedy recovery. With some luck, filming should resume in and around Arborfield Studios in the coming weeks, with an estimated release in the summer of 2021.
I agree with you that they would not cast Dormer (and tbh I’d rather them use the money on the effects, costumes, cinematography, visuals etc than a big name. They have Cavil to attract the casual viewers & I doubt that at this point they need anyone that big and most actors are excellent in their roles so I have no reason to doubt that the casting of Philippa will be perfect as well) but ngl ever since I’ve heard about the set visit last february, I did a re read of my books and I kept picturing her as Phillippa. I wonder when will they announce the casting!.