San Diego Comic Con 2019 is in full swing, and the convention has given us a full trailer
for Netflix’s upcoming series, The Witcher, based off of the popular novel series which
inspired one of the most popular video game franchises to date.
The trailer features a slew of scenes that will likely be familiar to fans of the best-selling
books, specifically from the short story collection titled The Last Wish.
In case you’re a little baffled about what exactly is going on in the trailer, fear not
friends!
We here at Top 10 gaming have you covered.
Here is everything you need to know about The Witcher trailer.
For starters, we know that the show will be heavily based on the books rather than the
games, according to the series’ showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.
The trailer definitely proves that to be true, as it devotes a lot of time to the origins
of Ciri and Yennefer.
More on who they are in a sec.
Let’s begin by breaking down what The Last Wish is.
It’s a collection of six short stories that precedes the main Witcher Saga, written by
polish author Andrzej Sapkowsi, published initially in 1993.
The stories are tied together with a threading narrative surrounding Geralt of Rivia, one
of the last witchers on the continent, a travelling monster slayer for hire who was, at a young
age, mutated and trained to kill beasts.
That’s Henry Cavill’s character, the one who most likely would recognize if you’re
familiar with the video games.
It also seems that part of the Sword of Destiny book will also be incorporated into the show,
since that’s the book where Geralt first meets Ciri.
It appears that Geralt gets caught up in a story that revolves around Ciri in the show.
Let’s talk a bit about the character we predominantly see in the trailer.
Geralt’s mutations give him his fighting abilities, and his white hair, with Geralt
having undergone particularly intense experiments compared to other witchers out there.
In the trailer, we see him duke it out with a few monsters, including what appears to
be a striga, which was once a woman who has been transformed into a monster thanks to
a curse.
This could very well be Adda the White, who Geralt disenchants and saves.
That’s part of a story in the last wish, where he’s hired by Adda’s father, a king,
to save her.
There’s a lot of Yennefer of Vengerberg in the trailer, played by Anya Chalotra, a
woman who was born with a deformity.
In the books, that’s a hunchback, but based on the trailer, there seems to be facial disfiguration,
too.
He father in the books detested her for it, and blamed her mother, saying that her mother’s
lineage, which consisted of eleven and mage blood, was responsible.
She’s a sorceress, and cares for Ciri, the blonde girl in the trailer, who is the princess
of Cintra.
Back to Yennefer though.
Thanks to her magical training, she’s heals herself of her ailments, a process that we
witness her undergoing along with the help of another sorceress known as Tissaia de Vries,
(tess-aye) who does not appear in the video games.
She’s the one who takes Yennefer under her wing, so to speak, and goes on to help Geralt
as well.
Triss Merigold also makes an appearance briefly in the trailer, too; she’s yet another sorceress,
who many of you will recognize as the red head from the games.
We witness a lot of their acts of magic throughout the trailer.
They’re not the only individuals who can use magic.
Geralt has some magical capabilities, as seen in the trailer during his fight on a street,
where he moves his hands into specific signs.
Let’s take a look at Ciri though, who takes up a big chunk of this trailer.
We see several shots with big battle scenes, an invasion of Ciri’s home land, Cintra,
by the nilf guardians empire, which she manages to survive.
The nilf guardian empire are the dudes in the black armour with the suns on their chest.
Ciri is the sole princess of Cintra, and in a scene that follows, we see her have an urgent
conversation with a bed ridden character who tells her to find Geralt.
Ciri is magically inclined, and has visions, along with powers she can’t quite control
yet, as seen in that shot with Siri walking in what we can only presume is the Korath
Desert, or the realm of the elves,walking towards a large tree that looks of magical
origin.
It’s also implied throughout the trailer that Ciri has elven blood, and she’s some
sort of child of destiny.
The ending of the trailer shows off a scene of Geralt and a kikimore, a giant insectoid
monster species that resembles a spider, rising out of the water.
This shot has led to speculation that the show will be venturing into The Lesser Evil,
one of the stories from The Last Wish.
The trailer then cuts to Geralt, whose eyes appear almost entirely black, and veins protrude
from his face.
That means his toxicity is nearly maxed out, something that fans of the game will surely
recognize.
The potions that Geralt takes in the game are poisonous, which seems to be the case
in the show as well.
Geralt will mix potions together in order to give him an advantage in battle based on
his situation.
Also, it’s worth noting – the reason why Geralt only has one sword through most of
the trailer is because in the books, he carries one on his back, and holsters the second to
his horse Roach, which, based on the photos we’ve seen so far, you can see a sword hilt
attached to his stead on it’s far left side.
Overall, without giving away any spoilers from the stories in the books, it seems very
likely that the series has pulled from a bunch of different moments from the novels, ones
that take place at very different times, so it’ll be curious how everything is bridged
together, and whether or not they’ll be following specific plots from the books, or
taking creative liberties and dragging and dropping scenes from different stories.
Alright there we have it friends!
Are you excited for the Witcher?
Let us know in those comments below!