By In the second season of Netflix’s The Witcher we saw something we never thought we had to see: a witcher turned into a leshy. And that witcher was Eskel, a beloved one for many book readers and game fans. Why that was done is a different topic to which an explanation was given, but today let’s see how that was done physically.
First we must go to the very beginning, back when Eskel was originally played by Thue Ersted Rasmussen, before he was recast with Basil Eidenbenz because of Covid-related schedule conflicts. Rasmussen back then published his process of getting a full body cast for the role of what we called Eskeleshy. It’s a gallery, so make sure you see all the photos he posted.
As you can see, the date on the post is January 17, 2020, before there were any serious news about Covid, so once again, Eskel’s fate was not changed during rewrites that were done during the covid break. It was always the plan.
READ MORE: The Witcher showrunner explains the controversial Eskel storyline in Season 2
Fast forward to much later, we have a timelapse video of Basil Eidenbenz becoming Eskeleshy by prosthetic artist and MUA Chloe Muton-Philips. It looks like very hard work with many hours of prosthetics and makeup appliance involved.
And here is the result in good light and detail. The “after”.
And this was “before”:
Prosthetic designer Barrie Gower also posted the autopsy of the Eskeleshy body on his Instagram. That was for the autopsy scene that Vesemir and Geralt conduct after Eskel is dead.
Gower tell about his work in a brief featurette about prosthetics:
We can see bits of the Eskeleshy fight in another new video from Netflix showcasing the VFX of the new season:
The Witcher Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix, while Season 3 is in active development for a 2023 release. Follow Redanian Intelligence for more news!
