Good news, the second season of Netflix’s The Witcher is in production right now! The bad news? It’s been shut down, yet again, thanks to coronavirus.
Deadline reports that multiple positive COVID-19 tests have forced The Witcher to halt filming in the UK. There are four positive cases amongst the production team, but they are apparently not amongst the main cast. The positive members are in isolation and Netflix will conduct isolated rounds of testing on everyone involved in the show. Filming will resume once Netflix is confident the set is completely safe.
This is the second time The Witcher’s production has been paused due to coronavirus. In March actor Kristofer Hivju tested positive causing filming to pause. Although production ended up being halted from March until August as the UK went into lockdown.
Production was able to resume mid-August, giving The Witcher three months of solid filming time until before the latest shut down. The UK is currently experiencing its second large-scale lockdown, but many productions were granted special permission to continue work.
Most film and TV productions have adapted to the pandemic lifestyle in order to continue filming. The Witcher star, Henry Cavill, reassured fans on Instagram that the production was following COVID safety guidelines and everyone on the team was social distancing and being tested regularly.
Cavill also revealed last week that he’d be moving from on-location shooting in Yorkshire to Arborfield Studios in West London to continue filming as the lockdown began. Although this has now been shut down. Hopefully, with all The Witcher’s extra safety protocols, this will only be a small blip in production.
There’s no word on The Witcher’s season two release date from Netflix, which is probably a smart idea given this whole situation. But it seems likely that the production’s multiple shutdowns will have pushed it back. Big sad.
The Witcher showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, confirmed in a Reddit AMA that the show was targeting a 2021 release. But when exactly we’ll see Geralt return to the bathtub is still unknown.