As reported by Eurogamer, it looks like filming for The Witcher season 3 has concluded. An alleged message from Geralt himself, Henry Cavill, to members of the cast and crew leaked online and has been shared by fan accounts for the show. He wishes his colleagues some "well-deserved rest," and it certainly looks like Mr. PC Gaming's signature on the stationary.
There's still a large amount of editing and effects work to go into that collected footage, naturally, and the next season does not yet have an official release date. The two-year gap between seasons one and two was partially influenced by the onset of covid-19 and its attending directorial difficulties, so time will tell if Netflix keeps to tradition—meaning a likely winter 2023 release—or if the company will decide to release it earlier in the year.
A synopsis for the season was shared by Netflix back in April, it reads:
"As monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture her, Geralt takes Ciri of Cintra into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Entrusted with Ciri's magical training, Yennefer leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where she hopes to discover more about the girl's untapped powers; instead, they discover they've landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery. They must fight back, put everything on the line—or risk losing each other forever."
It'll be interesting to see how closely the series hews to the remainder of the book series. Season one more or less adapted the short story collection The Last Wish (our recommendation for where to start on The Witcher books' reading order), but even then added a significant amount of background for Yennefer. Season two took even more liberty with the arrangement of certain plotlines—I'm thinking particularly of Istredd and Geralt's meeting and Ciri's training at Kaer Morhen—and emphasized certain storylines while minimizing others.
All of this was to the benefit of the show, I'd say, leaving it very watchable and well-paced. Geralt and Triss' whole thing at Kaer Morhen in Blood of Elves was a bit of a slog even as written word. I'm definitely looking forward to more Graham McTavish as Sigismund Dijkstra. The brutal spymaster's expanded frenemy relationship with Geralt was a highlight of The Witcher 3 for me, and McTavish has brought a suitably menacing charisma to the role.
We may know more about CD Projekt's planned follow-ups to the Witcher games by the time season 3 releases, though it will still likely be early days for development even by the winter of 2023. Barring catastrophe, we'll definitely have the next generation update for the Witcher 3—I've been putting off my next playthrough for just that occasion.
