In an unexpected announcement late on Saturday Netflix said that Henry Cavill is leaving his role as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher with Liam Hemsworth who is replacing him in a massive change for the fantasy drama series which Netflix also says has been renewed for a fourth season.
The third season of The Witcher with Henry Cavill is expected to debut on Netflix sometime in 2023 with a 4-episode prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin, which will be released on Netflix on 25 December, starring Laurence O'Fuarain, Sophia Brown and Michelle Yeoh.
The Witcher is based on the book series of Andrezej Sapkowski, following a monster-hunter travelling the Continent fighting various creatures, having formed a bond with a sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) and a Cintran princess Ciri (Freya Allan).
Henry Cavill appeared as Geralt since December 2019 in the fantasy series set in a world of humans, elves, gnomes, monsters and witchers.
"In season 4, Liam Hemsworth will step in as the titular monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia, the role Henry Cavill originated in the first three seasons," Netflix says.
"My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures, and alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords for season 4," Henry Cavill says in a statement he released on his Instagram account.
"In my stead, the fantastic Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf. As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam's take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men. Liam, good sir, this character has such a wonderful depth to him, enjoy diving in and seeing what you can find."
Liam Hemsworth in a statement on his Instagram account, says "As a Witcher fan I'm over the moon about the opportunity to play Geralt of Rivia".
"Henry Cavill has been an incredible Geralt and I'm honoured that he's handing me the reins and allowing me to take up the White Wolf's blades for the next chapter of his adventure. Henry, I've been a fan of yours for years and was inspired by what you brought to this beloved character. I may have some big boots to fill, but I'm truly excited to be stepping into The Witcher world."
Henry Cavill will next appear in Enola Holmes 2 alongside Millie Bobby Brown as Sherlock Holmes, which is releasing on Netflix next week and he is also reteaming with director Guy Ritchie on The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare before he will put on the Superman suit again for Warner Bros. Films which will restart his film journey as that DC superhero.
Disney+ shows are burning up the chart of the most pirated TV content of 2021 with multiple series from the Mouse House that this year replaced Netflix content as the most sought-after shows to digitally download and watch illegally.
Disney+, which is not available in South Africa, in 2021 released the most in-demand content for pirate viewers, with series like WandaVision, Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, as well as What If...? all grabbing spots on this year's list of most pirated TV shows.
Disney+ plans to launch in South Africa around June 2022, with neither WarnerMedia for HBO Max nor ViacomCBS for Paramount+ which have announced dates for their video streaming services for Africa yet.
According to the 2021 most pirated TV shows annual list compiled by Torrentfreak, Netflix only managed to get two spots on the list with The Witcher and Arcane in 3rd and 9th place respectively.
The science-fiction drama series Foundation of Apple TV+ also made the list and the first season of Amazon Prime Video's new fantasy drama series The Wheel of Time occupying the 10th spot.
Out of the entire top 10 most pirated shows for 2021 where DIsney+ represents 50% of the content, only the animation series Rick and Morty was on the list for 2020 and this year fell to the 8th spot from 6th place a year ago.
"What stands out most is that all Disney+ series of Marvel's 'Phase Four' are listed in the top 10," Torrentfreak notes.
"With the current streaming landscape being so fragmented, it appears that many people prefer to pirate instead of paying for 'another' subscription."
This is the 10 top ranking of 2021's most pirated TV shows:
Netflix has renewed The Witcher with Henry Cavill for a third season ahead of its second season debut on 17 December this year, the video streaming service announced on Saturday evening during its first Tudum: A Netflix Global Fan Event.
Netflix also announced that it's expanding the "Witcher-verse", with a kids and family series based on The Witcher universe, as well as a second anime film that will follow after the recently released The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.
The second season of The Witcher will debut on 17 December on Netflix with Henry Cavill's Geralt of Rivia, under the impression that Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) had died at the Battle of Sodden, taking Princess Cirilla (Freya Allan) to his childhood home of Kaer Morhen.
Meanwhile the Continent's kings, elves, humans and demons strive for supremacy outside its walls while Geralt tries to protect the girl from something far more dangerous: the mysterious power she possesses inside.
At The Witcher's virtual panel at the Tudum: A Netflix Global Fan Event, the creative team of the spin-off prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin, shared some behind-the-scenes footage.
The Witcher: Blood Origin is set 1200 years before the current series and will chronicle the creation of the first prototype Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal "Conjunction of the Spheres" when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one.
Declan de Barra will act as executive producer and showrunner of The Witcher: Blood Origin.
Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and Matt O'Toole are executive producers. Andrzej Sapkowski will serve as creative consultant. Jason Brown and Sean Daniel from Hivemind, and Tomek Baginski and Jarek Sawko from Platige Films will all serve as executive producers.
Henry Cavill's Geralt of Rivia returns to Kaer Morhen, the mountain stronghold and now-rundown castle where the Witchers used to be made and lived as they fought monsters in the just-trailer for the second season of the fantasy drama series that will premiere on 17 December on Netflix.
Besides the trailer for the second season of The Witcher, Netflix at its first WitcherCon virtual fan event streamed on YouTube on Friday night, also unspooled a trailer for Nightmare of the Wolf, an anime film that will premiere on 23 August.
Netflix also released The Witcher's second season key art poster, as well as new publicity images.
Nightmare of the Wolf, an animated prequel, tells the story of Vesemir, Geralt's mentor, and will also link viewers to the Kaer Morhen of the past and how it looked and functioned then, before it became the destroyed castle of Geralt's time period.
"Before Geralt, there was Vesemir - a cocky young witcher who delights in slaying monsters for coin. When a dangerous new power rises on the Continent, Vesemir learns that some witchering jobs are about more than just money," reads the logline for Nightmare of the Wolf.
The filming of the second season of The Witcher that had a troubled production and ended in April 2021, endured through several shutdowns because of Covid-19 and again briefly when Henry Cavill injured himself on set.
The second season of The Witcher will track the story of Geralt further who takes Princess Cirilla (Freya Allan) back to his childhood home of Kaer Morhen as he tries to protect her and her powers from the world, thinking that Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) died during the Battle of Sodden.
"I played the season one way deliberately, which was Geralt out in the wilds and without the opportunity for vast swathes of dialogue," said Henry Cavill at WitcherCon.
"I thought it best to be the man who says less because that seems like he's thinking more."
"And that was the intention with that. But once you get into a scenario with Cirilla, and the Witchers and his home space and with those people who he already knows, I was of the opinion that you had to let him be verbose and be philosophical and speak more and be intellectual, because that's what he is. He's not just a big old white-haired brute."
Netflix's growth finally went "wobbly" in the words of its co-CEO in the first quarter of 2021, with the video streaming service that posted a much smallest growth number for a quarter than even itself expected, but promising the release of new content like new seasons of The Witcher, You and Cobra Kai in the fourth quarter of this year as part of a steadier new content slate.
Netflix also said that it will start to test and rollout its crackdown on so-called "password sharing" but that it won't be done in a way to alienate users.
After reporting record growth in 2020 that it attributed to the Covid pandemic and people staying at home, Netflix blamed Covid for its slowed-down numbers when it reported its Q1 numbers late on Tuesday night.
Netflix added 3.98 million subscribers in Q1, a few million short of its own forecast of 6 million and had 207.4 million paying subscribers by the end of March 2021 - an increase of 13.6%.
Of the 3.98 million new subscriber additions, 1.81 million customers came from the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, making it Netflix's fastest-growing region, with Asia in second place.
Netflix has been warning for some time that its growth numbers will start to slow after record growth in 2020 and also tempered expectations for Q2, saying that it expects even smaller growth and might add just 1 million new paying subscribers.
Netflix's 3.98 million new subscribers during this years's first-quarter pales in comparison to its enormous 15.8 million new subscribers that it added during the same time a year ago.
"We had those 10 years where we were growing smooth as silk," Reed Hastings, Netflix's executive chairman and co-CEO, said in Netflix's quarterly investors webcast. "It’s a little wobbly right now."
Netflix said that it attributes the smaller subscriber growth to a "2020 pull forward" - meaning that it added subscribers that it would have added in 2021 in 2020 already because of Covid, as well as to a lack of new content - also because of Covid.
Netflix said that it expects to spend more than $17 billion in 2021 on churning out new content to keep subscribers hooked - up from $11.8 billion in 2020 - and that several shows that had to stop production because of Covid, resumed production.
"We believe paid membership growth slowed due to the big Covid-19 pull forward in 2020 and a lighter content slate in the first half of this year, due to Covid-19 production delays," Netflix said.
Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO and chief content officer, said during the webcast that the second half of 2021 will see a "much steadier" rollout of content again.
"What happened in the first part of this year was that a lot of the projects that we’d hoped to come out earlier did get pushed because of the post-production delays and Covid delays."
"We think we'll get back to a much steadier state in the back half of the year - certainly in Q4 where we have the returning seasons of some of our most popular shows like The WitcherandYouandCobra Kai as well as some big tentpole movies that came to market a little slower than we'd hoped like Red Notice andEscape From Spiderhead."
About its planned global crackdown on the practice of so-called "password sharing" whereby legitimate subscribers give their login and password details to friends and family members who are not paying subscribers, Reed Hastings said that Netflix will be careful not to alienate users.
"We'll test many things, but we would never roll out something that feels like turning the screws on people who enjoy the service. It's got to feel like it makes sense to consumers; that they understand."
The Witcher prequel series on Netflix is casting, Game of Thrones will chronicle a new Westeros war, there will be familiar and new characters like Sauron in Amazon Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings series, and the sorting hat might be dusted off to sort a new class in a Harry Potter TV series on HBO Max.
In an announcement, Netflix said that Jodie Turner-Smith has been cast in the role of Éile in the upcoming series The
Witcher: Blood Originspin-off.
This limited, 6-episode, live-action series is set "in an elven world" 1 200 years before the events depicted in The Witcher, which is busy filming its second season in the United Kingdom with Henry Cavill in the lead role as Geralt of Rivia.
According to Netflix, The Witcher: Blood Originwill "tell a story lost to time – the creation of the first prototype Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal 'conjunction of the spheres', when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one".
Netflix's character description states that Jodie Turner-Smith will "play Éile, an elite warrior blessed with the voice of a goddess, who has left her clan and position as Queen’s guardian to follow her heart as a nomadic musician. A grand reckoning on the continent forces her to return to the way of the blade in her quest for vengeance and redemption".
Declan de Barra serves as executive producer and showrunner ofThe Witcher: Blood Origin with Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, creator of The Witcher series, as executive producer, together with Tomek Baginski and Jarek Sawko from Platige Films.
Besides this limited spin-off, Netflix is also working on an animated film titled The Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf, that will tell the origin story of Geralt’s Witcher mentor Vesemir.
More Hogwarts and Westeros
As the video streaming wars continue to ramp up and studios are scouring their intellectual property catalogues that they could potentially build out into new content to set them apart and lure viewers, the Hollywood trades are reporting that WarnerMedia executives, in early discussions, are thinking about developing a live-action Harry Potter TV series for its HBO Max video streaming service.
In an official statement, Warner Bros. and HBO Max say that "there is no Harry Potter series in development at the studio or on the streaming platform".
Obviously, this statement is technically true - a series isn't in actual "development" - but it is only true insofar as everything that Professor Albus Dumbledore ever said to Harry Potter was technically true, although it wasn't at times all of the truth that was available.
According to the Hollywood reports, HBO Max and WarnerMedia execs have been and are talking about the possibility of developing a Harry Potter TV series and they see "expanding the world of Harry Potter as a top priority", similar to the way in which HBO's Game of Thrones fantasy series is being expanded with several prequel spin-off series.
Besides the already-announced House of the Dragon series that will debut in 2022 and that will chronicle the start of Westeros' Targaryen civil war, HBO is now also developing a George R.R. Martin Game of Thrones spinoff book series as a new Tales of Dunk and Egg TV series.
This spinoff drama series, with hour-long episodes and set 90 years before the existing TV series, will revolve around the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall (known as Dunk) and a very young Aegon V Targaryen (known as Egg).
HBO Max is not available in South Africa or sub-Saharan Africa and WarnerMedia doesn't want to talk about a possible launch date for the country or the continent.
However, last week Christina Sulebakk, the boss of WarnerMedia's HBO Max for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, announced her senior executive team specifically for this region - a strong indication that HBO Max will eventually make its way to South Africa similar to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.
A Sauron origin story
Amazon Prime Video has released an official description for the New Zealand-filmed Lord of the Rings prequel TV series, confirming that it will be set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, will include the island of Númenor and the elf-capital Lindon as locations, and that viewers will see "characters, both familiar and new" which means a young Sauron.
The as-yet-untitled Lord of the Rings series, the world's new most expensive TV series ever, is only expected to be released on Amazon Prime Video in late-2021, or during 2022 with Amazon that hasn't given a definite release date yet.
While the prequel series takes place thousands of years before the events depicted in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films and books, several of the inhabitants of this world have long lifespans like the dwarfs who live for several centuries and elves who are immortal.
According to Amazon Prime Video's new official synopsis for the series, "Amazon Studios' forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history".
"This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness."
"Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth."
"From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone."
The Second Age is of course when Sauron rose to power and corrupted the human leaders living on Númenor, leading to the fall of the Nine Kings.
The series cast includes Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge and Morfydd Clark as a young Galadriel.
Henry Cavill has been injured on the set of Netflix's The Witcher while filming the second season but production on the fantasy series is continuing after production had already been suspended twice this year because of Covid-19 cases.
According to Britain's The Sun tabloid that first reported the news, filming on the second season of The Witcher is continuing in the United Kingdom after Henry Cavill sustained a leg muscle injury on set.
According to on-set sources, Henry Cavill "was on an assault course and injured his leg. He just suddenly pulled up and was clearly in a lot of pain. It wasn’t clear if an object had hit his leg or it was some sort of hamstring or muscle injury".
Henry Cavill was apparently in trees using a safety harness at the time of the injury. "It wasn’t bad enough to need an ambulance but it’s messed up the filming schedule as he can’t walk properly. He has to wear heavy armour in the scenes and he just wouldn’t be able to do it with his leg injury.”
In March production on The Witcher following the adventures of the monster hunter Geralt of Rivia was shut down until mid-August after actor Kristofer Hivju got a Covid-19 positive test.
In November The Witcher production was shut down again after multiple Covid-19 positive cases on the Netflix series emerged that is currently filming at Arborfield Studios in West-London.
The Witcher is expected to go on another production break for the Christmas period later this month.
Netflix has decided to commission an origin story prequel spin-off of The Witcher fantasy series with The Witcher: Blood Origin that will be a 6-episode, limited miniseries set 1 200 years before the events of The Witcher that is currently filming its second season.
Like The Witcher with Henry Cavill in the lead role that will resume filming in the United Kingdom from August after a shutdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic, The Witcher: Blood Origin will also be done in the United Kingdom, although no production date has been announced.
The Witcher: Blood Origin will tell the story of the origin of the first Witcher before the fall of the Elven civilisation, with Declan de Barra as showrunner and executive producer, and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich as executive producer. The story will focus on the events that lead to the "pivotal conjunction of the spheres when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one".
"As a lifelong fan
of fantasy, I am beyond excited to tell the story of The Witcher: Blood Origin," says Declan de Barra in a statement. "A question has been burning in my mind
ever since I first read The
Witcher books – What was the Elven world really like before the
cataclysmic arrival of the humans?" "I've always been fascinated by the rise and
fall of civilisations, how science, discovery, and culture flourish right
before that fall." "How vast swathes of knowledge are lost forever in such a
short time, often compounded by colonization and a rewriting of history.
Leaving only fragments of a civilization's true story behind. The Witcher: Blood Origin
will tell the tale of the Elven civilisation before its fall, and most
importantly reveal the forgotten history of the very first Witcher." Lauren Schmidt Hissrich says in the statement, "I am so thrilled to
collaborate with Declan and the Netflix team on The Witcher: Blood Origin". " It’s
an exciting challenge to explore and expand The Witcher universe created by
Andrzej Sapkowski, and we can’t wait to introduce fans to new characters and an
original story that will enrich our magical, mythical world even more." The Polish author and creator of The Witcher, Andrzej Sapkowski, says "It is exciting that the world of Witcher - as planned in the very beginning - is expanding. I hope it will bring more fans to the world of my books."
Netflix has shut down filming on the second season of its fantasy drama series, The Witcher, with Henry Cavill, as cases of the Covid-19 novel coronavirus pandemic continues to spread globally.
The production shutdown of The Witcher, filmed at Arborfield Studios outside London, is the first TV series filming in the United Kingdom that is shuttering with Henry Cavill in the role of monster hunter Geralt of Rivia.
Netflix already shut down all of its productions in the United States and Canada last week.
Production staff and crew were told in an email that The Witcher is shutting down for at least 2 weeks.
"The coronavirus has raised challenging issues for everyone working on-set on productions for Netflix. We are very grateful for all the work everyone has done to keep cast and crew safe during this pandemic."
"Cast and crew health is our primary concern. We are dealing with an unprecedented global pandemic that is beyond our control, and in many instances with mandates or restrictions imposed by governments (including travel restrictions in many countries)."
"As such, we have made the decision, effective immediately, to pause production for two weeks during this difficult time, and we will support our production partners working on Netflix UK scripted series in doing the same."
"This will allow everyone the time to make informed decisions about how to move forward."
Meanwhile the BBC also announced that production has been shut down with production delays on the new seasons of Peaky Blinders seen in South Africa on BBC First (DStv 119) as well as Line of Duty seen in South Africa on ITV Choice (DStv 123) currently filming in the United Kingdom.
Production started in February on the latest season of Line of Duty in Northern Ireland.
"In light of the spread of Covid-19, after much consideration, the producers Caryn Mandabach Productions and Tiger Aspect Productions of Peaky Blinders season 6 have postponed filming, and World Productions on Line of Duty season 6 have suspended filming, both in consultation with and supported by the BBC."
"We will continue to review all productions on a case-by-case basis and will continue to follow the latest news and advice from the Foreign Office, World Health Organization and Public Health England."
The BBC didn't specify for how long Peaky Blinders and Line of Duty will be out of production.
John McVay, the chief executive of the United Kingdom's Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT), that country's industry body representing production companies, says that "With so many shows not being able to be delivered later this year and into next year there will be holes in TV schedules and that probably means a lot of repeats".
Netflix announced that the fantasy drama series The Witcher with Henry Cavill has become its most-watched new series ever - although the streaming service is changing its ratings measurement metric - as it revealed that its fourth quarter (Q4) subscriber numbers that surged by another 8.76 million.
In its Q4 2019 investor report that it released on Tuesday night Netflix said that it added another 8.75 million subscribers of which 8.33 million internationally and 420 000 within the United States.
Netflix managed to beat its forecast of gaining 7.6 million subscribers in Q4 and projects to add 7 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2020.
Its fourth quarter subscriber growth brought Netflix to 167.1 million subscribers worldwide at the end of 2019 of which 61 million were in the United States and 106 million in the rest of the world.
Netflix said in its investor letter that "Our low membership growth [in the United States] is probably due to our recent price changes and to United States competitive launches," noting the launches of new streaming services like Apple TV+ and Disney+ in late-2019.
Netflix noted that it had record subscriber additions in the Africa, Europe and Middle East (EMEA) region during the fourth quarter, adding another 4.42 million customers in this region.
"Many media companies and tech giants are launching streaming services, reinforcing the major trend of the transition from linear to streaming entertainment. This is happening all over the world and is still in its early stages, leaving ample room for many services to grow as linear TV wanes."
"We have a big headstart in streaming and will work to build on that by focusing on the same thing we have focused on for the past 22 years - pleasing members."
In a footnote in its earnings report Netflix said that it is changing its ratings system and how it reports viewing numbers, something which will increase viewership data for Netflix programming which isn't independently measured. Netflix notoriously doesn't release detailed ratings information.
While Netflix previously counted a view when a subscriber watched 70% of an episode or film, it now counts as little as 2 minutes of viewing time as a subscriber having watched that content. Netflix now counts a view when a subscriber "chose to watch and did watch for at least 2 minutes - long enough to indicate the choice was intentional".
"As we've expanded our original content, we've been working on how to best share content highlights that demonstrate popularity," Netflix noted.
"Our new methodology is similar to the BBC iPlayer in their rankings based on requests for the title, most popular articles on The New York Times, which include those who opened the articles, and YouTube view counts."
Netflix is making the change to its ratings methodology so that "short and long titles are treated equally, levelling the playing field for all types of our content including interactive content, which has no fixed length".
"Given that we now have titles with widely varying lengths – from short episodes to long films, we believe that reporting households viewing a title based on 70% of a single episode of a series or of an entire film, which we have been doing, makes less sense. We are now reporting on households that chose to watch a given title."
"The new metric is about 35% higher on average than the prior metric. For example, 45 million member households chose to watch Our Planet under the new metric vs. 33 million under the prior metric."
Netflix said that the Henry Cavill-led new fantasy drama series that had its first season become available on 20 December 2019 is now the streamer's most-watched new TV series ever with 76 million customers who've watched (some of) it.
Netflix already renewed The Witcher for a second season and said that "As a testament to how our hit content can penetrate the global zeitgeist and influence popular culture, the show’s launch drove up sales of The Witcher books and games around the world, and spawned a viral musical hit".
Netflix noted that the third season of Brit-drama The Crown was watched by 21 million households with 73 million households worldwide that have watched at least 2 minutes since the series launched.
Klaus, Netflix's first original feature-length animation film to be nominated for an Oscar, was seen by 40 million households in the first month of its release.
The second season of You was viewed by 54 million households during its first month of release and 83 million households watched the Michael Bay film 6 Underground starring Ryan Reynolds.
Netflix unveiled the first official teaser trailer for its upcoming fantasy drama series The Witcher at this past weekend's San Diego International Comic-Con 2019 where Henry Cavill in the role of Geralt and other cast members did media interviews and a panel session at the convention, revealing more about the upcoming show that will be released in late-2019. The Witcher's San Diego International Comic-Con 2019 panel comprised of showrunner Lauren
Schmidt Hissrich, Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra playing sorceress Yennefer and Freya Allan playing princess Ciri. The series, filmed in Budapest and based on the set of books and not the video games (that are also based on the books), is set in "The Continent" where Geralt is a monster hunter for hire and where humans, elves, witches, gnomes, and monsters battle to survive and thrive. Here are 12 new revelations and explanations about the upcoming series: 1. What is a witcher? "A witcher is a young boy who's been taken from the streets, of left to fend for themselves, and then ultimately taken in by this group called witchers," explained Henry Cavill during the Comic-Con panel. "They are trained to levels of almost unhuman agility and endurance. From there they're subjected to various alchemical trials. Most of these children do not survive. And then after that they are trained in the art of monster hunting and they travel the world, hunting monsters for coin and that is their one and sole purpose in the world." 2. A bathtub scene
The Witcher video game is famous/infamous/notorious for Geralt in a "bathtub" scene in Witcher 3 because it contains characters and nudity.
"There is a bathtub this season. There is a bathtub," Schmidt Hissrich said at a press panel. "I won’t tell you who’s in the bathtub, but there is a bathtub."
3. Only one sword
In the key art and teaser trailer, Geralt only carries one iron sword on his back. Players of the video games will know that he has a silver sword on his back as well, meaning he has two swords in the games.
The Netflix series is however adapting and working from the original book series, not the video games which themselves are an adaptation from the books and introduced a second sword as part of gameplay-mechanics. A second silver sword could maybe show up later during the show's story.
4. No main villain
The first season will not have a single "big bad". Lauren Hissrich said that similar to HBO's Game of Thrones, characters that you come to hate, viewers might come to like later on, and the other way around. The story will also rely heavily on political intrigue. 5. Magic comes at a price
According to the teaser trailer the elves taught humans how to turn chaos into magic - but magic comes at a price. Watch closely in the trailer as a trainer levitates a rock. In order to accomplish that, a flower dies - it's life force is drained to make the other power possible.
6. Eyes Wide Shut
What looks like could be an orgy scene with naked people in the background, and including Geralt and Yennefer behind a mask, is actually "Belleteyn". It's a fertility festival that marks the start or end of relationships of a physical nature.
7. Yellow eyes, white hair
Geralt of Rivia might become the new Mother of Dragons, with Henry Cavill wearing yellow contact lenses and a long, silver-haired wig, just like Emilia Clarke did in Game of Thrones.
"It was all about eyes and hair," said Henry. "Hair took a long time, to get the wig right, which took amazing work by Jackie, who does all my hair work. It was tricky because we had to get the skin tone right as well and the people who worked on the makeup worked really hard as well to find that balance."
"Wearing the contacts - I had to wear them for 3 hours at a time and then you take them out. I look badass but my eyes hurt a little bit."
8. Henry knew Geralt
"I'm a big gamer. So I played the games a lot. Then when I heard that the show was becoming a thing,it was a bit of an opportunity dream come true."
"I heard they're adapting the books, not the games, so I went out and bought the books and read them all back-to-back very quickly. So it's very personal to me," said Henry Cavill.
"I don't think I went out to deliberately bring something different to Geralt because I'm a purist. I love the books, I love the games, and I wanted to do faithfully to everything that I believe in and that everyone else believes in. So it's not putting my own spin on it. It's about doing justice to the material."
9. Anyone can join and start
Although The Witcher is unknown to a lot of people who are unaware of the books and the video games, showrunner Lauren Hissrich, said "one of the best things about fantasy is you should be able to be dropped in a be able to exist in that world yourself".
"The books are really rich, there's a lot to comb through. We brought out the best that we can."
Henry Cavill said "it's a fantasy series that uses all the regular fantasy tropes; gnomes, elves, dwarves, monsters, heroes. What makes this really interesting is that it's not just heroes. There are no real heroes. Everyone is a hero in their own story but might be seen by everyone else as someone quite opposite."
"It also dives very deeply into real-world issues that we all experience, whether it be racism, social injustice, the nature of politics and how it affects our world. It's all of the fantasy stuff, and more - all of the fantasy stuff but with very recognisable themes."
Freya Allan said "people can watch it even if they're not fantasy fans because there are so many relatable themes".
10. A belief in something better
"Geralt is a monster hunter and he has seen nothing but the brutality of the world. He's been on the receiving end of all the slings and arrows of every race on The Continent," explained Henry Cavill.
"The interesting thing about Geralt is despite being this incredibly tough, hardcore monster hunter who's harder, heals more quickly, hear better, can see better, is a better fighter than your average man, he has this heart of gold."
"He has such potential to be an incredibly dark character, especially because of the outside world and how it affects him and how it directly relates to how he should feel because of how he's treated, and yet, deep down in his core, he still has this belief in something better and something else."
11. A horse called Roach
"Geralt isn't Geralt without Roach. We meet Roach with Geralt at the beginning of this story and Roach is more than just a horse and like an anchor to Geralt's honest and true self," Henry Cavill explained.
"She's the one access point he has to humanity."
12. International crew
The show started with 9 writers in Los Angeles, filming took place in Budapest, Vienna and the Canary Islands and in Poland, and post-production is currently being done in London. The show has a crew of around 300.
Here is the official teaser trailer of the first season that will start in late-2019 on Netflix:
Netflix has released new stills and the first poster art for its upcoming live-action drama series adaptation of The Witcherwith Henry Cavill in the role of Geralt.
Besides Henry Cavill, The Witcher also has Anya Cholatra as sorceress Yennefer and Freya Allan as Princess Ciri as the other two lead characters. The series is filming on location in Hungary.
The Witcher, based on the fantasy novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, is an epic tale of fate and family, and follows Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, as he struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.
When destiny hurtles him toward a powerful sorceress, and a young princess with a dangerous secret, the three must learn to navigate the increasingly volatile Continent together.
Other previously announced cast include Jodhi May as Calanthe, Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson as Eist, Adam Levy as Mousesack, MyAnna Buring as Tissaia, Mimi Ndiweni as Fringilla, Therica Wilson-Read as Sabrina, and Emma Appleton as Renfri.
Eamon Farren will appear as Cahir, Joey Batey as Jaskier, Lars Mikkelsen as Stregobor, Royce Pierreson as Istredd, Maciej Musial as Sir Lazlo, Wilson Radjou-Pujalte as Dara, and Anna Shaffer as Triss.
