It's finally here: the first full-length trailer for the hotly anticipated Netflix show The
Witcher, based on Andrzej Sapkowski's book series of the same name, which has famously
been adapted into a collection of acclaimed video games.
Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich pulled the veil off the footage at the Lucca
Comics and Games Convention in Lucca, Italy on October 31st.
All the major players of The Witcher appear in this trailer, including, of course, Henry
Cavill as Geralt of Rivia — the namesake witcher who underwent a number of mutations
and was trained from a very young age to develop superhuman abilities to hunt monsters of all
sorts.
Apart from doing what trailers should do in laying the groundwork for what the show is
about and confirming its December 20th release date, the first trailer for The Witcher includes
several small details sure to make fans of the property smile — and total Witcher newbies
get excited about the upcoming series.
In the first few seconds of the trailer for The Witcher, the footage flashes to show an
extreme close-up of a violet-colored eye — Yennefer's eye.
A skilled sorceress and the eventual love of Geralt, Yennefer is described in canon
as having "a pale triangular face, violet eyes, and narrow, slightly contorted lips."
Networks and showrunners have actually tried — and failed — to bring violet-eyed characters
to the small screen before.
Within George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones novels, each member of the royal Targaryen
family has purple eyes, ranging from pale lilac to deep indigo, that create a contrast
with their pale white, sometimes silvery hair.
HBO's television adaptation of Martin's books got the hair right but the show opted not
to make the Targaryens' eyes violet.
Not long after we're met with Yennefer's striking purple gaze, we see something just as eye-catching
in the trailer for The Witcher: a shot of Geralt holding a metallic trinket in his blood-caked
hand.
One may assume that the object is Geralt's own White Wolf medallion that he can tune
to detect beasts nearby — but it isn't.
In actuality, it's the brooch of Princess Renfri, who's sort of a brutal, badass version
of Snow White in the books.
Later in the trailer, Geralt is shown riding on his horse while another man walks beside
him.
That mystery man is Dandelion, a poet and bard who offers quite a bit of comic relief
in the games.
In the Witcher canon, Dandelion becomes a close friend of Geralt's after the two meet
during a festival where Dandelion was trying to evade some particularly nasty dudes.
The shot of the two in the Witcher trailer does feature scenery that feels similar to
what's described in Sapkowski's short story "The Edge of the World," which recounts Dandelion's
first meeting with Geralt, so it seems likely that the Netflix series will indeed detail
the pair's initial meeting.
Geralt of Rivia offers some powerful words in the middle of the first full-length trailer
— but they weren't written by the show's creative team.
The short speech he gives in the newly released footage is actually taken almost verbatim
from the short story "The Last Wish," which precedes the main Witcher saga.
Geralt says,
"Evil is evil.
Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same."
In the story, he goes on to say,
"Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred.
I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life.
But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all."
And finally, diehard Witcher enthusiasts flipped their lids over one particular moment in the
series' trailer that casual fans and those unfamiliar with the property were probably
a bit confused by: Geralt chillin' in the bathtub, his medallion around his neck, candles
lit behind him, and Yennefer by his side.
This isn't Netflix's attempt at using Henry Cavill's sex appeal to attract audiences — it's
actually a near-exact replica of a cutscene from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the CD Projekt
Red video game released in 2015.
That game showed Geralt in supreme relaxation mode, sitting in a bathtub with his feet sticking
out of the basin.
Bathtub Geralt became an instant meme and was even turned into a "marvelously detailed,
hand-painted statuette" issued by Dark Horse.
"Don't judge me."
He may not poke his toes out of the water in the scene on Netflix's series, instead
opting to be a little more demure during his down time, but Bathtub Geralt is unequivocally
here to stay.
All the more reason to watch The Witcher when it hits Netflix on December 20th.
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