By Filming for The Witcher‘s fourth and penultimate season is continuing in North Wales with Liam Hemsworth, who will make his debut in the new season as Geralt replacing Henry Cavill, confirmed on location. Now we have learned that they will be filming one of the most memorable battle scenes of Andrzej Sapkowski’s saga.
The Witcher Season 4 will film the Battle of the Bridge in Llyn Padarn, Wales
As we reported earlier this week, The Witcher‘s production has converged on the shores of Llyn Padarn, a beautiful lake in Snowdonia, Wales. After discussions with locals, we have learned that the Netflix production will soon move from the lake shore to the Pen y Llyn Bridge on the western edge of the lake, near the village Brynrefail.
This confirms what we had already suspected: the filming on the lake in Wales will be part of an iconic battle sequence adapted from the very end of Baptism of Fire: the Battle of the Bridge. Of course, some or even most of the filming of the actual battle will take place in the Longcross Film Studios near London, with lots of green screen. The scenes filmed on location at Llyn Padarn and in the studio will be edited into a single sequence in post-production.
Thanks to The Daily Post, we have some new information on the crew’s preparation for the filming of this sequence on the lake. According to the Post, the Witcher crew had started filming at Dolbadarn castle (also on the lake) a few days ago, and are expected to stay in the area for up to two weeks.
Moving to the lakebed, the Netflix crew has constructed a large, temporary harbor near Craig yr Undeb, also known as Union Rock, on the northern side of Llyn Padarn and near the Pen y Llyn Bridge.
From this floating pier, the crew continued to assemble and construct large props they would soon use during filming. One of these props is a wooden raft ferry, which the show’s heroes will commandeer (more on that in the next section). Another prop reportedly assembled is a mock castle tower. After constructions were done, filming prep officially started on September 18, and already the show’s new star was spotted on location.
The ferry boat that leads Geralt’s Hansa to battle
On Spetember 18, local onlookers spotted Liam Hemsworth in costume as witcher Geralt of Rivia on the shores of Llyn Padarn. Hemsworth’s appearance came after the Netflix production converged on the shores of the lake in Snowdonia, with motorboats, filming equipment, and a large crew.
Hemsworth was seen in costume near a wooden raft ferry constructed by the crew. This ferry will be commandeered by Geralt and his followers for a brief, yet memorable moment on their quest to find Ciri.
In the books, Geralt was joined by the bard Jaskier who is portrayed in the show by Joey Batey, the archer Milva who is portrayed by Meng’er Zhang, the barber-surgeon Regis who is portrayed by Laurence Fishburne, and the ex-Nilfgaardian soldier Cahir who is portrayed by Eamon Farren. Though they have not been caught on camera yet, they will certainly be there for this sequence.
Besides the ferry itself, the crew has motorboats and floats stacked with filming equipment, from which they are filming the ferry. Locals who watched the filming on the lake from afar said that there were archers firing arrows at the ferry from the rocks on the nearby shore.
The locals also described that the oarsmen on the boats were laughing and that there was a big explosion. You can see more pictures from the filming on the lake on September 19 in the gallery below.
What happens in the Battle of the Bridge?
There will be spoilers in this section with details of the events as described in the books.
The Battle of the Bridge unfolds in the final chapter of the novel Baptism of Fire, the third novel in Sapkowski’s Witcher Saga following two short story collections and two full novels. Much like we’ve seen from filming on set, Geralt and his Hansa are riding a ferry boat hoping to cross the Yaruga on their quest to find Ciri, but they are traveling through a land ravaged by the Second Nilfgaardian War, and the Yaruga River is a strategic bottleneck that armies are vying to control.
Instead of enjoying a beautiful cruise along the Yaruga, the gang keeps running into soldiers of two armies. On one side of the river, they find the Nilfgaardian forces, who fire arrows at their ferry, driving them away. On the other side of the river, they find the army of Lyria and Rivia, who also fire arrows at them. Understanding that they are locked between two warring armies, the Hansa decide to sail upstream and hope for the best, but then they find themselves approaching a bridge, and on that bridge, a large battle is taking place between the two armies.
With a wounded Milva and Regis tending to her, and Jaskier in an emotional meltdown, it falls to Geralt and Cahir, two men who fought each other not long before this moment, to take charge. The two men find themselves fighting back to back along the bridge, joining the Lyrian army, and Cahir fights and kills the Nilfgaardians he once fought with.
After a heroic victory, the wounded Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia rides to meet the witcher who singlehandedly shifted the tide of battle and helped push the Nilfgaardian forces away. Meve is surprised to find the legendary Geralt of Rivia, who is not really from Rivia. In this moment, Queen Meve decides to anoint Geralt, naming him Ser Geralt of Rivia, making the “of Rivia” moniker official.
This scene was adapted in 2018’s Gwent video game, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, where it was told from the point of view of Queen Meve. In Season 2, Meve was portrayed by actress and stuntwoman Rebecca Hanssen, and she may return for this scene in Season 4.
As always, we will be following this filming closely and updating with new information as we get it.
The Witcher Season 4 is in production for a 2025 release. Andrzej Sapkowski’s new Witcher book has a planned Winter 2024/2025 release with The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep anime set for a late 2024 release as well.
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