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Movies & Series 20 July 2019, 15:00

Analysis of The Witcher Series Trailer - Another Netflix Hit?

Finally! We have seen the first trailer of The Witcher series by Netflix. We invite you to read our detailed analysis of this two-minute teaser trailer.

Table of Contents

Geralt

The stranger wasn't old, but his hair was almost completely white. Under his coat he wore a worn-out leather cup, laced under his neck and shoulders. When he pulled down his coat, everyone noticed that he had a sword on his waist behind his back.

Evil is evil. Smaller, bigger, medium, all the same, proportions are conventional and borders are blurred (...), if I am to choose between one evil and another, I prefer not to choose at all.

Geralt in conversation with the magician Stregobor, The Lesser Evil

It should be stressed out that the series will show us events from a different perspective than the first books. There, we have always admired the world through the eyes of Geralt – here the narrative will be presented from the side of different characters. It will be, as Lauren S. Hissrich said, "a series about family". Ciri and Yennefer should therefore play the same important role on the screen as the title Witcher.

Coming back to the White Wolf – at Comic Con, we got to know a handful of curiosities about this character. We found out that Henry Cavill wasn't the first choice of the series' creators – over 200 candidates were rehearsed during the castings before the final choice was made, and Cavill asked about his involvement many times. The actor is a big fan of both CD Projekt Red's video games and Sapkowski's books. His involvement looks promising – he practiced fencing with four different swords for months, and performed all stunts by himself.

Ciri

– How do you know Ciri would like to come with me? From old prophecies?

– No – said Mousesack seriously. – Because she only fell asleep when you hugged her. That she purrs your name in her sleep and searches with her hand for your hand.

Geralt's dialogue with Mousesack, Sword of Destiny

Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon. For friends, just Ciri.

Knowing that The Witcher will be a "family show", it is not surprising that there was a lot of Ciri in the trailer. We saw her mainly among the driads in Brokilon and Cintra – the latter mainly in the context of the imminent threat from the Nilfgaard (we can even watch the siege of the city and girl's escape).

How does she look like in terms of acting and visuals? It’s really hard to say. Pretty neutral, actually. At this point of the story, Ciri has not yet revealed her character – a unique mixture of feisty girl, full of impudence and haughtiness – which in Sword of Destiny made her such a colorful character (even though she was barely a child there, and here she was already presented as a teenager). So far, she seems to be a common girl in oppression (even if in every second scene different characters convince the viewer that she is an extraordinary child), which Geralt will have to save with the help of his horse called Roach. Her appearance doesn't look very appealing either – Freya Allan's eyes may be big enough, but they are hardly "venomously green".

Yennefer

Yennefer of Vengerberg

And suddenly he knew the truth. He knew. He knew who she once was. What she remembered, what she couldn't forget, what she lived with. Who she really was before she became a sorceress.

Because the cold, penetrating, evil and wise eyes of the hunchbacked woman looked at him.

Fragment of The Last Wish

Andrzej Sapkowski has barely mentioned in his books that Yennefer was crippled in the past. Meanwhile, in the trailer of the series, we have at least a few scenes revealing the sorceress's difficult youth, revolving around training under the guidance of Tissai de Vries at a magical academy in Arethusa. Yen's evolution will most probably also be a great opportunity for the viewers to understand the world of the franchise – the conjunction of spheres, the genesis of monsters and witches, the principles of magic, etc. (the trailer itself has already explained a lot about this subject).

What's interesting, during the panel at Comic Con, another video was released, in which the sorceress speaks to a dead child on the beach. This shows that series’ developers will clearly outline the desire of Yennefer to have children (she’s infertile because of being a sorceress) – which will certainly complement the "family" character and various drama issues of the whole production.

In the book, Yennefer was a hunchbacked one. The series showed her disability in a different way.

Christopher Mysiak

Christopher Mysiak

Associated with GRYOnline.pl since 2013, first as a co-worker, and since 2017 - a member of the Editorial team. Currently the head of the Game Encyclopedia. His older brother - a game collector and player - sparked his interest in electronic entertainment. He got an education as a librarian/infobroker - but he did not follow in the footsteps of Deckard Cain or the Shadow Broker. Before he moved from Krakow to Poznan in 2020, he was remembered for attending Tolkien conventions, owning a Subaru Impreza, and swinging a sword in the company's parking lot.

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