“Toss a coin to your Witcher…”
With news that Season 2 of The Witcher is now in production with a planned launch in 2021, it’s time for Geralt of Rivia to start slaying some more monsters.
Well, Netflix have announced that a raft of new additions to he cast inclusing Yasen Atour (Young Wallander) as Coen, Agnes Bjorn (Monster) as Vereena, Paul Bullion (Peaky Blinders) as Lambert, Thue Ersted Rasmussen (Fast and Furious 9) as Eskel, Aisha Fabienne Ross (The Danish Girl) as Lydia, Kristofer Hivju (Game of Thrones) as Nivellen, and recent graduate Mecia Simson, as Francesca.
Truth be told, given the love we have for Kristofer Hivju’s performance as Tormund in Game of Thrones, we’d just like him to play the exact same character in the Netflix drama!
The series will be directed by Stephen Surjik (Umbrella Academy) – he will direct the first two episodes of Season 2 – whole Sarah O’Gorman (Cursed), Ed Bazalgette (The Last Kingdom), and Geeta V. Patel (Meet The Patels) are also helming episodes.
Speaking about the new additions, The Witcher showrunner and executive producer, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich (Marvel’s Daredevil, Umbrella Academy) said: “The reaction to season one of The Witcher set a high bar for adding new talent for the second season. Sophie Holland and her casting team have once again found the very best people to embody these characters, and in the hands of these accomplished directors, we’re excited to see these new stories come to life.”
In a previous interview, Hissrich said that the plot line in Season 2 will be more straightforward and linear.
“The story has a lot more energy and drive because we’re not constantly trying to introduce new places or characters. So I feel like Season 2 will be more focused and linear, but there are things that we couldn’t fit in Season 1 that i will want to return to in future seasons. We’ll continue to use flashbacks when we need it, or other devices, said Hissrich in an interview with Business Insider.
In terms of the plot details, Hissrich added: “You’ll learn a lot more about Gerlat. You’ll know where he came from and why he is the person he is in Season 1. With Ciri, she’s not looking backwards anymore or looking back at her family in Cintra anymore. She’s trying to build a new family. And Yennefer is going to be dealing with the Battle of Sodden. She took a big risk at the end of that with that firepower, and it doesn’t work out so well for her. ”
During a recent Reddit AMA, she also said that Season 2 will delve into the history of Nilfgaard and some of the other Witchers that exist in the universe.
“Yes, we felt like we needed to set up a “bad guy” in Season 1 — but it’s our hope that we’ve added enough layers to Cahir and Fringilla that the audience thinks ‘Wait, but they don’t seem insane. So what do they see in Nilfgaard? Maybe there’s more there than meets the eye?” Perhaps we didn’t go far enough in S1, to see more behind Nilfgaard’s curtain — but it will definitely be explored more thoroughly in Season 2. And we decided to save some tidbits of Witcher lore until… you actually meet more Witchers.”
Bring it on!
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
