Warning. Full spoilers ahead for Season 1 of Netflix’s The Witcher.
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Now that The Witcher Season 1 is out in the world for everyone to binge, we’re eager to learn what’s next for Geralt and his comrades, and more importantly, why Season 2 isn’t dropping on Netflix until 2021. To learn everything we need to know about The Witcher Season 2, we went straight to the source – Witcher showrunner and executive producer Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who recently arrived in London to continue her work on the second season.
Hissrich admitted that she and her team had considered a late 2020 release date for Witcher Season 2, but eventually decided not to rush production. “The truth is, [The Witcher] is an enormous show and it takes a long time and we realized that in Season 1 we were smashing down a lot of the post-production process,” Hissrich told IGN. “And we want to make sure that everyone on our team gets the time to do their job and do it to the best of their ability. So we’re making sure we have a lot of built-in cushion time for Season 2 so we don’t cram anything in at the last minute.”
Hissrich revealed that all the scripts for The Witcher Season 2 have been written, though she told us that the pages are “living breathing things,” which might go through some changes during pre-production. “Now is really the time that we do the fine-tuning,” Hissrich said, “and we make sure that we’re telling the story the right way. And that will continue happening through July. It’s an ongoing, organic process.”
Find out how Henry Cavill and his choreography team developed that thrilling fight between Geralt and Renfri in the video below:
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Another fascinating tidbit surrounding Season 2’s development has been the social media frenzy over the potential Witcher casting of Mark Hamill as Vesemir, as Geralt’s wisened instructor.
As a refresher: back in 2018, Hamill jokingly responded to a Twitter thread suggesting that he would be the ideal fit to play Vesemir. The veteran actor replied via his Twitter account: “I have no idea what this is or what it’s about but agree it could/should be played by me.” Jump to a year later, after The Witcher’s premiere on Netflix, and Hamill made another comment on Twitter in response to a post from IGN, providing hope for fans that he’ll one day play Vesemir. Check out his response below:
Hissrich told us that she’s a “huge Star Wars fan” and would like to see Hamill in the role, but no formal discussions between the two parties have taken place. “We have not contacted his agent yet because we’re not casting the role quite yet,” Hissrich explained. “But that being said, I am loving what’s happening on the internet. And I’m loving all of the fan reaction to it. Obviously, we’ve seen what a huge fanbase The Witcher has, and to add that to a Star Wars fanbase… it makes my mind explode a little bit.”
In addition to discussing which actor will play Vesemir, Hissrich shared a few details about how Season 2’s narrative structure will differ from its predecessor. For those of you who found the multiple Witcher timelines of Ciri, Geralt, and Yennefer difficult to follow, you can rest assured that The Witcher Season 2 will have a more linear timeline.
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“The timelines were done mostly so we could follow Geralt’s story at the same time we were following Yennefer’s and Ciri’s story,” Hissrich told IGN. “What we’ve done by the end of Season 1 is bring everyone onto the same timeline, and their stories will start to intersect a lot more. I personally was sad that the timelines weren’t received as well as I hoped they would’ve been. I think they’re fun. But I think the audience lucked out a lot because, in Season 2, those were already gone anyway. So I do think that it’s going to be an easier season to follow. But I think more than that, the storytelling is a lot more focused.”
For more on The Witcher, find out why the series didn’t adapt Geralt and Ciri’s first meeting from the books, how The Witcher was influenced by Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, and what the rest of the IGN’s staff thought about The Witcher’s first season.
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David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He’s also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com Here's Why Season 2 of The Witcher Won't Air Until 2021