Netflix's The Witcher Season 2: Trailer, Release Date, and More

We are officially on The Witcher watch. Season 2 has wrapped production and will finally premiere next month after fans have been waiting for almost two years to find out what happens next. Rest assured that Geralt (Henry Cavill) seems up to the task of handling another potential apocalypse, but to make sure you are ready, we're compiling everything Netflix has released about the new season, as well as the expanding Witcherverse, including the premiere date and several other interesting spoilers for Season 2.

The Witcher is inspired by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher books, which also spawned the popular CD Projekt Red video game franchise. The show stars Cavill as monster hunter Geralt of Rivia, a witcher whose destiny becomes bound to the sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) and the powerful princess Ciri (Freya Allan). The first season was told across three timelines, each of which followed one of the three main characters. But now that all three timelines have caught up to each other, we can't wait for Season 2 so that the series can really delve into the relationships between Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri.

So what can we expect of The Witcher Season 2? Here's everything we know so far.

Latest News

The final trailer sets up the journey. "Something has changed," Geralt is warned in the final trailer for The Witcher Season 2 before new episodes drop. Our hero doesn't seem too phased by a possible "end of days" on the way – he's lived through three – but it does look like he's getting a workout fighting monsters and enemies in the trials ahead.

Premiere Date

Season 2 arrives in December. Netflix announced during WitcherCon in July 2021 that The Witcher Season 2 will arrive on Dec. 17. Mark your calendars. 

It will consist of eight episodes. In line with its freshman run, Season 2 of The Witcher will once again be made up of eight episodes. Stephen Surjik will direct Episodes 1 and 2, Sarah O'Gorman will direct Episodes 3 and 4, Ed Bazalgette will direct Episodes 5 and 8, and Geeta Patel will direct Episodes 6 and 7.

Netflix revealed seven of the eight episode titles for Season 2 during July's WitcherCon. 

Production has wrapped. The Witcher officially wrapped production on Season 2. Netflix confirmed in April that filming had wrapped with a video featuring Henry Cavill thanking the cast and crew, as well as showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich explaining what was accomplished over the long shoot. They shot in over 15 different locations with 89 cast members and more than 1,200 crew members to bring Season 2 to life. 

Trailer 

The first full-length Season 2 trailer arrived in September. Netflix's global fan event, Tudum, gave us even more never-before-seen footage of the upcoming season with a full trailer and two exclusive clips. 

The first clip features Geralt catching up with his old friend Nivellen, who is a new character in Season 2. 

Things get dark in the second clip when Geralt goes to protect Ciri from a monster in the house...but is it him?

A teaser has also been released. Netflix's WitcherCon released the first teaser trailer for Season 2, which spends a lot of time with Geralt and Ciri. 

Photos

We have Season 2 images. Hello, Jaskier (Joey Batey)! Our favorite musician is back in new Season 2 images, along with an intense shot of Ciri training with Lambert (Paul Bullion).

The first photos released from the season feature Henry Cavill's monster hunter Geralt of Rivia and Freya Allan's Princess Cirilla.

Casting

The main cast will return. Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra, and Freya Allen will all reprise their roles as Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri, respectively. Other returning cast members include Joey Batey (Jaskier), MyAnna Buring (Tissaia), Tom Canton (Filavandrel), Lilly Cooper (Murta), Jeremy Crawford (Yarpin Zigrin), Eamon Farren (Cahir), Mahesh Jadu (Vilgefortz), Terence Maynard (Artorius), Lars Mikkelsen (Stregobor), Mimi Ndiweni (Fringilla Vigo), Royce Pierreson (Istredd), Wilson Radjou-Pujalte (Dara), Anna Shaffer (Triss Merigold), and Therica Wilson Read (Sabrina).

There will be several new additions to the cast: Seven new characters were announced in March 2021 in a "Welcome to the Continent" announcement from Netflix. Adjoa Andoh will play Nenneke and will be joined by Cassie Claire as Phillippa Eilhart, Liz Carr as Fenn, Outlander's Graham McTavish as Dijkstra, Kevin Doyle as Ba'lian, Simon Callow as Codringher, and Chris Fulton as Rience. 

In early 2020, Netflix announced new additions to The Witcher cast, including Game of Thrones' Kristofer Hivju in the role of Nivellen. Agnes Bjorn will play Vereena, who is a key role in the Nivellen storyline. Aisha Fabienne Ross will play Lydia, a sorceress and assistant to Vilgefortz. Mecia Simson has been cast as Francesa, and though Netflix didn't include a last name for the character, book readers can probably safely assume the actress will be playing Francesca Findabair aka Enid an Gleanna, a powerful elven ruler.

The Witcher Season 1 featured a handful of characters who didn't originate in the books, and Season 2 will follow suit. In February 2020, it was announced that Carmel Laniado joined the cast in a recurring role as Violet, "a young girl whose playful and whimsical demeanor is a front for a smarter and more sadistic character," per Deadline. While Violet wasn't featured in the books, fans of the popular video game franchise likely can't help thinking of the violet rose prominently featured in the Hearts of Stone expansion. Hissrich has been very clear that the series isn't adapting the games, but there's always the chance this new character Violet may prove to be a subtle nod to them and the tragic violet rose storyline.

Other new cast members coming to The Witcher Season 2 include Lesley Ewen as Meena Coppercloth and Andrew Paul and Colin Coppercloth, per Redanian Intelligence.

Spoilers

Netflix has released the official Season 2 description: The logline for The Witcher's second season reads, "Convinced Yennefer's life was lost at the Battle of Sodden, Geralt of Rivia brings Princess Cirilla to the safest place he knows, his childhood home of Kaer Morhen. While the Continent's kings, elves, humans and demons strive for supremacy outside its walls, he must protect the girl from something far more dangerous: the mysterious power she possesses inside." 

The timeline won't be as confusing. Many viewers struggled to keep track of the show's three separate timelines in Season 1 (which you can find explained here), but these fans will be relieved to know this won't be as big of an issue in Season 2. During a Reddit AMA in January 2020, Hissrich confirmed that the structure "will definitely change" in Season 2, and their "stories have begun to converge." Hissrich did tease in the spring, though, that the show will still be "playing with time a little bit still, but in a different way, an easier, I think, to swallow way."

Season 2 will likely draw inspiration from Blood of Elves. While the first season was largely an adaptation of the two short story collections The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, Season 2 will probably draw most of its inspiration from the first novel in The Witcher Saga, Blood of Elves. Unlike the short stories, which jumped around in time and location a lot, the five-novel series tells one cohesive storyline about Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri as they fight to protect Ciri from those who wish to harm or control her.

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We're going to meet Geralt's witcher family. Blood of Elves kicks off with Geralt and Ciri at Kaer Morhen, an old keep that witchers are trained at. And based on the casting of multiple other witchers, we're guessing we'll be following our heroes to the castle, where Ciri will likely begin training to be a witcher herself. Season 2 has already announced castings for Coen (Yasen Atour) and Lambert (Paul Bullion). The role of Eskel was originally cast with Thue Ersted Rasmussen, but due to rescheduling conflicts as a result of the production delay, the part was recast with Basil Eidenbenz. In May, Redanian Intelligence reported that Joel Adrian had also joined the cast as a new witcher character, Hemrik.

We'll also be meeting Vesemir (Kim Bodnia), who is the oldest and most experienced witcher, and the closest thing Geralt has to a father. "And what a better time to meet Vesemir, his father, than when he's raising a daughter of his own. So we start to look back at who were Geralt's parenting models, what did his family look like? And what Season 2 becomes, to an extent, is what we got to do with Yennefer and Ciri in Season 1, which is explore where these characters came from," Hissrich told TV Guide.

6 Questions The Witcher Season 2 Should Answer

Season 2 won't just be based on the novels. New characters Nivellen and Vereena both originated in the short story "A Grain of Truth" from the first book, The Last Wish. "A Grain of Truth," which is about a cursed man in a complicated romantic relationship (it's also the books' take on Beauty and the Beast), is one of the few short stories from The Last Wish that wasn't include in The Witcher Season 1.

As of now, no casting announcements have indicated that Season 2 will draw directly upon any of the short stories from Sword of Destiny that haven't already been featured -- including "Eternal Flame" or "A Little Sacrifice" -- but that doesn't mean these storylines won't be featured in the series next season or down the line.

There will be more video game Easter eggs. When asked whether the show would continue to pay homage to the CD Projekt Red video games, Hissrich said fans could definitely expect more Easter eggs woven in. "Obviously, what we wanted to do is go back to the source material, not to do an adaptation of an adaptation," Hissrich said. "But it doesn't mean that we're not fans of the games ourselves, that we don't play them ourselves, and that we know that a huge part of our audience has only heard of The Witcher because of the video games. So we do, we want to pay homage to it, to them as often as possible."

We'll see new sides of Nilfgaard's most formidable fighters. So much of Season 1 was driven by the conflict with Nilfgaard, who served as antagonists to pretty much everyone. However, Season 2 will spend more time with Cahir and Fringilla, and they may just prove they aren't the villains Ciri and Yennefer seem to think they are.

"One of the things that we worked hard at in Season 1 was to establish that Nilfgaard seems like our bad guys. They seem like our villains. What's fun in Season 2 is we start peeling back those layers a little bit more," creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich teased. "We start digging into what Nilfgaard actually wants and why Cahir and Fringilla, these characters that we love, feel like they are best served in this kingdom. And I think both of them get to show really surprising things this season."

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We can expect more terrifying monsters. Although none of the creatures monster slayer Geralt and the others will face in Season 2 have been confirmed, Redanian Intelligence speculates that we may see a leshy, which featured prominently in The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, and a myriapod, which was memorably featured in the short story where Geralt and Ciri first meet and is similar to the giant centipedes in The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. Redanian Intelligence also reports that there's a chance we could see more of Aretuza's eels, despite their polarizing reception in Season 1.

Season 2 isn't the only Witcher content heading our way. In addition to the anime feature film set in The Witcher universe, titled The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, Netflix has also revealed a live-action prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin. The six-part limited series will be set in an elven world 1,200 years before the events of the flagship drama and reveal the origins of the first witcher, as well as the events that lead up to the Conjunction of the Spheres.

How to Watch

The Witcher Season 2 premieres Friday, Dec. 17 on Netflix.

The Witcher Season 1 is available on Netflix.