Frame by frame analysis of The Witcher Season 2’s brief new teaser

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As expected, Netflix revealed some footage of The Witcher‘s second season during their Geeked Week broadcast. It may have been a shorter teaser than we hoped, but it still packs numerous new shots into its twelve seconds. Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer and Henry Cavill’s Geralt are unfortunately missing here, but we do get to see quite a bit of Freya Allan’s Ciri.

Before we dive into it, here’s the full teaser.


The teaser focused on Ciri

In the above screenshot, we can see Ciri standing in the snow wearing a worried expression. We don’t know what she’s worried about, but we do believe the location is the witcher fortress of Kaer Morhen, where Geralt and Ciri will stay in the first few episodes of season two.

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Season two picks up right where the first season left us, meaning that Geralt has just met Ciri. This is just a number of days after the fall of Cintra, during which Ciri lost all of her loved ones as well as her home. It appears Ciri’s connection to Cintra will be important in season two as she searches for a new home, and a new family.


Welcome to Kaer Morhen

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In the above screenshot, we can see a very blurry Ciri standing in front of a pair of swords. Behind her is a stand with – you guessed it – more swords. We have already seen that one in a screenshot last year, and it seems this is part of the Kaer Morhen armory.

The sword stand seen in the background, as seen in a “Witchmas” picture

As for the swords in the foreground, the one on top is inscribed with Elder Speech, and it appears to be a completely different sword to the one Geralt used in season one. Could this sword belong to Vesemir or one of the other witchers Ciri will meet in Kaer Morhen?

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We’re not quite sure what the above dagger is, but it may also belong to the Kaer Morhen armory. The same goes for the next few frames featuring tools and plates.

Last but not least, we have our first and very blurry look at Ciri’s training. Fans of the novels and games know that Ciri will eventually become a skilled swordswoman, but before that she will undergo quite a bit of training at Kaer Morhen.

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Nilfgaard strikes back

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As we have reported in the past, The Witcher‘s second season is bidding farewell to season one’s most controversial design choice: the Nilfgaardian armor. We are going to see the old and wrinkly armor early in the season, for continuity’s sake, but at some point that armor will be replaced with the one glimpsed in the above screenshot. For a more detailed look at the new armor, including how it looks on Eamon Farren’s Cahir, check out the article linked below.

RELATED ARTICLE: New Nilfgaardian armour in The Witcher finally revealed!


Ciri will travel through some beautiful locations

Among the many blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments in the teaser, there are quite a few shots of Ciri traveling. In these frames we can see some of season two’s beautiful new locations. The above screenshot in which we see Ciri running appears to be from the show’s filming at Gordale Scar. Besides Freya Allan (who portrays Ciri), Henry Cavill’s Geralt was also seen filming at this location.

RELATED ARTICLE: Henry Cavill captured filming The Witcher at Gordale Scar, Malham

Here we see a boot (probably Ciri’s) on the bank of a river. During the filming of the second season, the Witcher crew spent a few days at the High Force and Low Force Waterfalls in Yorkshire. If this is indeed a shot from that sequence, Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer of Vengerberg should be just out of the frame. How cruel of Netflix!

RELATED ARTICLE: Yennefer in new outfit and Ciri filming on horseback for The Witcher Season 2

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These last few screenshots feature Ciri in a forest drenched with snow. They might all be from the same scene, or from completely different scenes in season two. In the last picture, Ciri is wearing a fur coat, so that one is likely not related to the first two. If you’re wondering who Ciri is meeting in the forest, our first guess would be Anna Schaffer’s Triss Merigold, as a similar meeting occurs in the woods outside Kaer Morhen in the novels.

RELATED ARTICLE: Anna Schaffer’s Triss Merigold joins The Witcher cast at Kaer Morhen


A look at season two’s intricate sets and props

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Apart from many beautiful locations in the English countryside, The Witcher‘s second season was also filmed on various sets within the crew’s headquarters in Arborfield Studios. The above screenshot features a beautifully lit sewer, and someone just outside of the frame is exploring it with a torch in hand. We’re curious to see who that someone is.

Here we can see what appears to be wall art of a man fighting a griffin. If that’s really what we’re seeing here, this could be another look at Kaer Morhen.

The silhouette of two dancing toy figures. The lady appears to have a sword strapped to her belt.

A look at some interesting jewelry worn by elven sorceress Francesca Findabair (Mecia Simson), as you can see in the comparison below.

We’re not quite sure what we’re looking at here, but the red hues suggest this will be part of Ciri’s dream sequence in season two. As in the first season, Ciri’s dreams have a red theme. We have already seen a few behind-the-scenes pictures from a nightmare sequence in season two, one of which featured a mysterious character. For more on that, check out the article linked below.

RELATED ARTICLE: Behind the scenes photos of Ciri’s nightmares, and a mysterious figure in The Witcher Season 2


And more…

There are a few more frames in the trailer, but we can’t gather much from them. One seemingly features runes drawn in the sand, next to purple flower petals. Another shows Ciri in a snowy ruin that is probably Kaer Morhen.

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Next up is a very dark photo that looks like it was ripped from the third episode of Game of Thrones season eight. In the foreground, it appears that one character has fallen to the ground, while another character holding a torch watches them in the background.

Last, but certainly not least, is a rather decayed corpse laid on a stone slab inside a cavern. If we hadn’t been following the show’s filming so closely, we wouldn’t have a clue of what we’re looking at here. We do have a guess, however, and it’s based on a leak that is a major spoiler and a huge deviation from the novels. If you wish to learn the possible identity of the corpse, take a look at the article linked below.

REALTED ARTICLE: Major spoilers about the corpse seen above


Elder runes, and what they might mean

Besides these shots from season two, the teaser featured three instances of runes written in the show’s Elder Speech. Thankfully, a previous report of ours has a breakdown of the runes and some common translations. We fired our best shot at the show’s language specialist David Peterson, and he kindly replied with his own translation.

That’s only half of the work, though! We still don’t know what most of these words mean. The first word, “Gynveilei” translates to “ice”, “eip” translates to “up”, and “torana” seems to be related “tower” as “tor” means “tower” in Hen Linge. Of these words, the first is the most recognizable as Aedd Gynvael is the setting of one of the novels’ short stories titled A Shard of Ice. As it happens, we may get to see a loose adaption of that short story in season two.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Witcher language creator publishes extensive material

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Well, that was a very brief teaser! Thankfully, we won’t have to wait very long for our next look at season two, as we’re sure to see something at the recently announced WitcherCon which is slated for July 9. Hopefully, that’s when we’ll see the season’s first proper trailer.

10 comments on “Frame by frame analysis of The Witcher Season 2’s brief new teaser”

  1. The runes on the sword are actually glagolitic script (that was also used in the videogames) and not the ‘hen linge’ that was created for the show. it’s upside down but what i could translate is “Glandeal Morch Am Fhean Aiesin” “Ⰳⰾⰰⱀⰴⰵⰰⰾ ⰿⱁⱃⱌh ⰰⰿ ⱇhⰵⰰⱀ ⰰⰹⰵⱄⰹⱀ” which sounds like part of “Dubhenn haern am glâdeal, morc’h am fhean aiesin” -> “the flash that cuts through darkness, the light that breaks the night”

    1. And at the eyebrows they had to change from bleached to natural and not to the blackest mascara. They aged her too fast, in books she was sweet until she met Rats.

      1. I don’t fully agree. When Geralt meets Ciri in Broklion, Ciri is described as a difficult character. Her Falka heritage gradually comes to light and grows over time, and becomes visible in little outbreaks, like when she goes on a stroll in Gors Velen (or was it Roggeveen? I don’t remember the place really – just before she is supposed to go to Aretusa) and creates quite some havoc before being picked up by Margarita and Tissaia. She is never fully likable, and certainly she is not sweet in her behaviour all around. The problem is that the 1st season has omitted that important first encounter of Geralt and Ciri in Broklion when Ciri was only 10, and has completely misrepresented the interaction between Ciri and the Dryads. Perhaps they’ll do it later, maybe even in season 2, in a flashback, but it is not helpful for the development of the narrative to rip the timeline in such a way. Viewers who have not read the books will be confused, and will also be misled to think that Ciri is “sweet”. But we are missing the scenes that would have shown that she is not.

  2. Another random comment about “sweet” (or rather not) Ciri. In the Witcher 3 game, Ciri is not presented consistently with Ciri in the books. In the game, Ciri is an entirely positive character, and even less interesting than in the books, as the figure doesn’t undergo any character development. She only reacts and is not confronted with any decisions of a moral dimension that have any consequences. Game Ciri always stays on the “good” side of the story and whenever her story elements become interesting, it is through interaction with Geralt. Ciri in the books is different. She is ambivalent in her moral orientation, although I think that in the novels, her character isn’t fully developed either, but is sort of meandering for a large part, again mostly reacting rather than acting or taking thoughtful or conflicting decisions, so that she does not grow up to be a really interesting dramatic or tragic, relatable figure (in contrast to Frodo Baggins, for example, if you know what I mean), even though her story occupies a major part of the books. In my view, that is a shortcoming of the books. But just to say, the game portrays Ciri as a more positive and likeable, and therefore, simplified and less interesting figure than the books. I think it is important not to confuse book Ciri and game Ciri as they are really differently characterized with quite different story contexts. Now, so far, the show has made Ciri even less interesting, without any meaningful interaction with any other character. If you wish to see it positively, it can only change for the better.

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