The Witcher season 2 will have to be “great” to get a season 3

The Witcher, Netflix’s high fantasy hit about a grumpy monster hunter played by Henry Cavill, is returning for a second season later this year, and given how well the first one went over, a third seems pretty guaranteed down the road.

But that’s not what showrunner Lauren Hissrich says. “No, there has been no formal renewal,” she told TheWrap at a Television Critics Association press event. “[R]ight now my focus is on Season 2.”

"There is still a lot of work to be done in post-production, so I am back and forth between Los Angeles and London completing that. And that is just, honestly, where all of our focus is right now because we need a great Season 2 if we have a hope of having a Season 3."

For the record, I’m calling bulls**t on this. She doesn’t know if Netflix will renew The Witcher for season 3? It’s about to release an animated spinoff called Nightmare of the Wolf. It’s making a live-action prequel series called The Witcher: Blood Origin. Hissrich is producing both of these efforts, and she just signed an overall deal with Netflix to write and produce other content for the streamer. The Witcher is clearly a hit, so even if they haven’t yet made a formal announcement, I’d say it’s pretty much guaranteed we’ll be seeing a third season following the adventures of Geralt, Yennefer Ciri and the rest of this fantastical crew. I mean, they have a lot more Witcher books to get through.

I guess the second season could be such a rancid tire fire that Netflix would think twice about renewing the series, but given how much they’ve invested it would take a lot for that to happen.

What will happen to Ciri and Yennefer in The Witcher season 2?

As for what will happen in The Witcher season 2, Hissrich promises big things for Ciri (Freya Allen). “One of my favorite things this season is that Ciri plants her feet and is not running this season.”

Allen herself loved the change. “Ciri is lacking trust in anyone, and Geralt trying to understand this girl he’s looking after… She’s not giving him much, so it was great fun to explore that and talk about it,” she said.

Somewhat alarmingly, Hissrich did say that some of the timeline-hopping nonsense from the first season would come back, although at least there’s less of it. “What I did with that is we won’t play with time as much, but still not tell completely linear stories. For example, Ciri’s story moves back and forth in her head.”

As for the sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), we last saw her doing the most at the Battle of Sodden. The beginning of the new season will find her chained and captured by the invading Nilfgaardians. “Yennifer’s journey is one of self exploration,” Hissrich said. “She is figuring out who Yennifer is and who she wants to be in the future.”

Chalotra herself also weighed in: “There will be unlikely alliances that change her way of thinking. Her experiences in Season 2 really change her.”

The Witcher season 2 drops on Netflix on December 17.

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

h/t SyFy Wire