The Witcher is one of many shows forced to go on pause because of the coronavirus, which means there’s no telling when its much-teased second season will arive. In the meantime, fans have to make do with the books, the games, all those “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” remixes, and re-watching season 1 (maybe to clear up any lingering confusion with the timelines?). It looks like Netflix is banking on the latter. On Monday, the streaming service released a video with the show’s stunt coordinator, Vladimír Furdík (fun fact: he also played the Night King on Game of Thrones), who broke down how the show pulled off that opening fight sequence.
Buy the Book
The Unconquered City
As you’ll recall, The Witcher begins with Geralt swamp-wrestling the Kikimora, a giant spider-like abomination. Well, part of Furdík’s job is going through and acting out all the fight scenes beforehand. But how does one do that with a mostly CGI monster? The answer: two conference tables, five dudes, and eight makeshift “legs” taped together from long metal pipes.
“They undo the legs and I start to build the fight,” he says in the video, swinging a sword. Because the fight unfolds with inhuman, witcher-level swiftness in the show, he had to do the blocking at a quarter of the speed. And even though the final fight sequence only takes about two minutes to unfold, a lot of choreography went into its design.
“I thought that he should be a fighter who already predict three seconds before going to kill someone else,” Furdík reveals in the video.
Sounds like Geralt, alright. For a cool double-feature, we’d suggest pairing this video with Henry Cavill’s Witcher guide to getting swole. Obviously, do not attempt at home or without a licensed grizzled mentor fellow (read: personal trainer).
