The Witcher season 2 will show us “more of that intellectual…wise Geralt”

The second season of The Witcher, Netflix’s adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s popular fantasy novels, will be here before you know it, and will show us a different side of lead character Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill). Sure, he’s still taciturn and gruff, but now that he’s united with Ciri (Freya Allan), we’ll get to see more of his fatherly, protective side.

“He’s got this deep down White Knight Syndrome, even though every time he acts upon it, it gets him into some serious trouble — and puts him and everyone else in a worse position than initially intended,” Cavill told Entertainment Weekly. “But with Ciri, she’s definitely bringing out the paternal side of Geralt. While he hasn’t necessarily been someone who craved children, he does take quite naturally to being a protector.”

For the second season, Cavill wanted to “bring [out] more of that intellectual, philosophical, wise Geralt” who does more than grunt and kill things.

"I really wanted to avoid him being too one tunnel. Even though he may be dark and mysterious at times, I wanted him to come across as this incredible character that [Sapkowski] wrote. Those are things that I really pushed for and tried very hard to get into the show."

Naturally, a lot of that will involve Ciri, who Geralt will take to the witchers’ keep of Kaer Morhen — which we spent a lot of time at in the animated film Nightmare of the Wolf — to train her in the ways of the witcher. According to Cavill, a lot of the new season is “focused on Ciri’s journey and her experience, and what she is feeling about this awakening of who she is and discovering these powers that she has.”

Speaking of Nightmare of the Wolf, The Witcher season 2 will bring in the witcher Vesemir, the main character of that movie. He’s much older now, and played in live action by Kim Bodina. “Kim and I were discussing the emotionality of these characters, and Kim brings some powerful emotion to [the role] and a real sense of soul and heart and connection to the wild and connection to nature,” Cavill said. “It’s beautiful to watch and beautiful to be a part of. Some of my favorite scenes I got to perform with Kim. He does bring something really special to the character, and I think people are really going to enjoy it.”

Say goodbye to multiple timelines in The Witcher season 2

Another way season 2 is different: at least according to EW, the weird shifting timelines that made the show needlessly hard to follow are gone. Instead, per Cavill, there will be “multiple cliffhangers throughout a [single] episode.” That makes sense, since the characters are more spread out now — Yennefer, for instance, will have her own story, although we’d bet on her reuniting with Geralt at some point.

The Witcher season 2 drops on Netflix on December 17.

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