After production was delayed by COVID-19, we heard in June that season two of Netflix's Witcher series would resume filming on August 17. It looks like it started earlier than that, as director Stephen D Surjik posted an on-set image on August 5. And if there was any doubt, yesterday Henry Cavill posted a photo of his makeup process, which he says involves "pounds" of tape and glue.
"All of us are Covid cleared and bubbled," Cavill wrote, meaning that the Witcher cast and crew are avoiding contact with anyone outside of their group. Tests are occurring twice a week, he added.
Cavill's miserable look in this photo is unsurprising: The application and removal of professional film makeup, done here by Ailbhe Lemass and Jacqueline Rathore, is a long and uncomfortable process, regardless of how good the artists are. (I am speaking from a brief personal experience wearing special effects makeup about a decade ago. It was hot and itchy.)
At the same time, it looks like Geralt himself is in a bad way in whatever scenes were being filmed. He's a little beat up, at least, though to be fair he's often like that.
The first season of The Witcher introduced us to the world and its characters in a series of time-hopping stories that ultimately collided at the end. The big question with season two is how well it now transitions into a more linear structure and continues the saga.
No release date has been announced, so we're not quite sure when we'll find out. Before the pandemic, we expected The Witcher season two to release sometime in 2021. That's still possible, but if it does release next year, it probably won't be until the very end of it. Principal filming of The Witcher season one finished in May 2019, and the season released over six months later in December 2019. If the filming of season two finishes in early 2021, it could follow a similar pattern.
