Few shows on Netflix are as popular as The Witcher, the monster hunting extravaganza that sees Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) slay beasties while trying to keep his adoptive daughter Ciri (Freya Allen) safe from those who wish to eat her, kill her, or use her for their own ends. Season 2 ended with a few serious cliffhangers, including the first appearance of the Wild Hunt, a troupe of otherworldly riders who have their sights set on Ciri. The anticipation for season 3 is real.
Fortunately, the cast and crew are hard at work filming the third season. Shooting began right around the beginning of April, meaning its nearing the end of its second month of production.
The Witcher season 2. Image: Netflix
Henry Cavill just filmed two straight weeks of fight scenes for The Witcher season 3
The Witcher star Henry Cavill recently took to Instagram, where he often posts updates about his daily workouts, to tease what’s happening on set. Cavill is an ambassador for The Durrell Challenge, a 13km marathon run in support of wildlife conservation. Though the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is based in New Jersey, participants can log their runs virtually. That’s what Cavill has been doing from Longcross Studios in England. “We decided to walk it today, mostly because I’ve had the nine shades of hell beaten out of me through two weeks of fight scenes, and ma body wasn’t ready for a 13km run!” Cavill wrote in his Instagram post.
The Witcher news site Redanian Intelligence, which has a pretty good track record for these kinds of scoops, has speculated that the scenes Cavill was filming take place at an Elven ruin called Shaerrawedd, which featured in Andrzej Sapkowski’s novel Blood of Elves but was cut from season 2 of the show. RI has leaked pictures of the expansive ruin set that has been built at Longcross Studios, which is where it’s believed Cavill just filmed those two weeks of fight scenes.
RI believes that these fight scenes feature in one of the episodes directed by Stephen Surjik. Surjik is directing the first two episodes of season 3, meaning that this long fight sequence could happen right near the beginning of the season. So perhaps we are getting the Shaerrawedd set piece from Blood of Elves, just a little later in the timeline than expected.
Filming on season 3 of The Witcher is expected to last until at least September of this year. The new season will most likely premiere sometime in 2023.
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