The first season of The Witcher debuted on Netflix in late 2019, in those blissful days before the coronavirus pandemic came along and sequestered us in our homes for the past year and change. The show, an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s series of fantasy novels (with a healthy nod to the video game adaptations from CD Projekt Red), was an immediate hit, filling the hole in some fantasy fans’ hearts left by the recent end of Game of Thrones.
And then we went a whole year without anything new from the world of The Witcher, as the second season was slowed down by COVID-19, not to mention star Henry Cavill (Geralt of Rivia) having an on-set accident. But today, finally, showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich announced that filming second season has officially wrapped, and Netflix even provided us with a release window!
As Hissrich said, the shoot lasted 158 days and included 15 locations, 89 cast members and 1,200 crew members later. “We are so proud of everything we accomplished in season 2 and we can’t wait for you to watch it.”
When is The Witcher season 2 release date?
Netflix didn’t give us an exact release date for The Witcher season 2, but they did serve up some good news with one simple line in a press release: “The Witcher Season 2 – coming in 2021.”
2021, as you probably know, is this year! Given the delays the show has suffered, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that the second season of the show would debut on Netflix before 2022, but it looks like the streamer has things well in hand.
The first season of The Witcher debuted in December, so we’d expect season 2 to follow suit.
What is The Witcher season 2 about?
Last we left The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia had met up with Princess Cirilla (Freya Allan) as she fled the destruction of her homeland. That brings us to the end of the second of Sapkowski’s Witcher books, Sword of Destiny.
Next up is Blood of Elves, where the story gets a little more unified and a little less like a series of loosely connected adventures. Hissrich mentions this herself, but also teases moving past the source material a bit: “There are plenty of new characters and storylines and of course monsters to explore as well, as we dig into the Blood of Elves and beyond.”
Indeed, we’ve seen evidence that The Witcher season 2 will take cues from later books and maybe even the games by including the Wild Hunt. By the time we see new episodes, two years will have passed, but at least it looks like Netflix is making the wait worth it.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels