The Witcher: Characters, Books, Seasons, Chapters, Trailer and More

The Witcher 2 resonates louder and louder. The filming of this second season had to stop because of the pandemic, but the work has already been resumed and the fans of this Netflix series are again looking forward to its return. Do you think if in the meantime we go over his first installment (which has swept so much), how did the project come about and we are getting ready for its return? Well, make yourself comfortable.

The Witcher, the great story of Sapkowski’s witcher

If you do not have the track followed in the world of literature, it is possible that what sounds the most to you about The Witcher is that “there is a very famous video game with the same name.” Yes, it is true that his story has a playful proposal that is quite popular, but like the TV series that has swept Netflix, everything is concentrated in the same point of origin: the Saga of Geralt de Rivia.

The Witcher: Characters, Books, Seasons, Chapters, Trailer

Devised by the Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, the also known as Saga del Brujo is composed of 10 books in which the adventures of the white-haired witch Geralt of Rivia are narrated. In the universe created by Sapkowski, sorcerers are genetically created and trained as teenagers to develop their full potential and qualities, among which are their superhuman abilities as warriors (they are especially good at hunting monsters), especially heightened senses and a great knowledge in alchemy.

The Witcher

Geralt is also the protagonist of the Netflix series, a proposal launched in 2019 that, despite having very disparate criticisms (there are those who consider that they have not adapted the novels correctly and those who believe that it is at the level of Game of Thrones), has managed to become one of the undisputed successes of the platform.

The Geralt of Rivia Saga books

Since we have talked about the 10 books that are part of the Saga del Brujo, it is not bad to leave here a review of the titles of these volumes. You must know a curiosity about them: in practice you will only find 9 translated , since the first all, published in 1990 under the title Wiedźmin (translated as The Witcher ), was later replaced by The Last Wish , in which they met again all the stories of El Brujo as a retroactive history of the saga:

  1. Wiedźmin (The Witcher) – Obsolete tome, published in 1990
  2. The Last Wish – 1993
  3. Sword of Destiny – 1992
  4. Blood of the Elves – 1994
  5. Hate Time – 1995
  6. Baptism of Fire -1996
  7. The Tower of the Swallow – 1997
  8. The Lady of the Lake – 1999
  9. Road of no return – 2000
  10. Storm season – 2013

The Witcher Synopsis and Official Trailer

The official synopsis of The Witcher on Netflix reads as follows:

Geralt of Rivia, a mutant monster hunter, travels in pursuit of his destiny through a turbulent world in which humans are often worse than beasts.

https://youtu.be/ETY44yszyNc

First season and chapters

In the first season of the series we are introduced to the main characters of the story, what is the main destiny of the Sorcerer and how Geralt de Rivia, Yennefer de Vengerberg and Ciri are connected to each other. It is composed of 8 episodes:

  • The beginning of the end

Geralt is in the city of Blaviken while Princess Ciri sees how her future reign collapses when Nilfgaard besieges Cintra and is tasked with seeking Geralt of Rivia, “her destiny”.

  • Four frames

We meet Yennefer, who discovers a way to escape her miserable life. While Geralt gets into trouble hunting a suspected devil and Ciri finds protection.

  • Treacherous moon

Yennefer decides to sacrifice something very precious in exchange for becoming a great sorceress and finally changing her destiny. Geralt faces the mission that another warlock left behind in a desolate kingdom.

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  • Banquet, bastards and burials

Although he does not want to, Geralt ends up accompanying Dandelion to a dance at the cost. Ciri wanders into an enchanted forest while Yennefer tries to fulfill her protection missions.

  • Unstoppable desires

Yennefer tries to find a cure at the price she paid in the past to become a sorceress. The young woman and the witcher meet when he comes to her to save Dandelion.

  • Rare species

A mysterious man tries to convince Geralt to join in on a dragon hunt, a mission in which he will meet someone he knows.

  • Before a fall

Nilfgaard threatens the continent while Geralt of Rivia reconsiders his obligation to the famous Right of Surprise.

  • Much more

Geralt is seriously wounded while Yennefer fights alongside other wizards to confront the Nilfgaardians. Ciri is taken in by a woman in the forest.

The time jumps of the first season

Something that did not like everyone in the first season is the way of presenting the story in this first installment, in which time jumps have been the daily dish. This coupled with the fact that Yennefer and Geralt, for example, do not age, has meant that not everyone has understood 100% the order of events and has been dissatisfied with this approach.

Why was this done? Apparently, the idea that was pursued with this approach was to introduce Yennefer and Ciri before how it happens in the books, so that they have more weight and development as characters and are not “secondary” characters that cross Geralt’s path.

The idea in fact is that the second season revolves much more around Ciri, although they have already ensured that by then the three protagonists will coexist in the same timeline.

The Witcher cast and crew

The cast in The Witcher is very extensive, although we have three clear protagonists and several characters who are also recurring. Let’s review the most outstanding ones:

  • Geralt of Rivia – Our sorcerer is played by Henry Cavill . The white wolf is a monster hunter turned witch in his teens whose destiny is Princess Ciri of Cintra.

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  • Cirilla (“Ciri) : played by Freya Allan, is the princess of Cintra, daughter of Pavetta, and linked to Geralt’s fate by the Right of Surprise.

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  • Yennefer de Vengerberg : brought to life by Anya Chalotra. A sorceress meets Geralt on several occasions, who falls in love with her.

Yennefer - The Witcher

  • Dandelion : Joey Batey plays Geralt’s inseparable companion during his adventures.
  • Tissaia de Vries : she is the rector of the Aretuza sorceress training academy. It is played by MyAnna Buring.
  • Istredd: played by Royce Pierreson, he is a sorcerer and friend of Yennefer.
  • Vilgefortz de Roggeveen – A powerful wizard played by Mahesh Jadu.
  • Triss Merigold : brought to life by Anna Shaffer (who by the way does not resemble the description in the books), a sorceress who serves as a magician at the court of the Kingdom of Temeria.
  • Stregobor – This magician, Istredd’s mentor, is brought to life by Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen.

As for the team behind the cameras of the American series, it is worth highlighting the name of Lauren Schmidt, creator of this new proposal for the small screen. Several directors have participated in its direction as well as in the creation of the scripts, a very choral work in which both Lauren Schmidt herself and the writer Andrzej Sapkowski have been involved.

When does the second season premiere?

As we pointed out at the beginning of this article, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the stoppage of filming in the second season, which was confirmed in December last year. Fortunately, with the “new normal” the Netflix production team was able to recently resume recording and continues with the development of the new installment.

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Even before the coronavirus chaos, the content platform confirmed anyway that we would not see new episodes until 2021 , so you should not expect any surprises for the remainder of the year. On a specific date, forget about it: any initial plan had to be disrupted by the virus situation, so it is a real mystery how long we will still have to wait to see how Geralt’s adventures continue.

The Witcher prequel

The success of The Witcher on Netflix has been such that the platform has not hesitated to get even more juice out of it if possible. How? Well, with the announcement of a prequel. In this way, the service will expand the universe of the Sorcerer’s Saga on the small screen with a mini-series of a few chapters about which little is known at the moment.

We have confirmation from the red N, an official name ( The Witcher: Blood Origin ) and the setting: about 1,200 years before Geralt, when the first sorcerer was created. The series will be at the hands of Lauren Schmidt again and among the names that are being considered for the casting we have Jason Momoa (Aquaman, Game of Thrones, Dune) . It paints very, very, well.