Fans eagerly awaiting the December 17 release of Netflix's "The Witcher:
Season 2" can now get their monsters, mages, and magic fix
in the form of director Kwang Il Han's animated spin-off film, "The Witcher:
Nightmare of the Wolf." Here's everything you need to know about the prequel's poignant ending.
The prequel focuses on the backstory of Vesemir — Geralt of Rivia's mentor and father figure,
who's set to be played by Kim Bodnia in the live-action series' second season.
This prequel chronicles the events that led him to become a witcher,
as well as the experiences that forced him to rethink his beliefs, priorities, and values.
Since those values were passed on to Geralt, the film serves to bridge the gap between
the Geralt of Season 1 and the Geralt created over the course of the series'
source material by Andrzej Sapkowski . Although "The Witcher: Nightmare of the
Wolf" is not, strictly speaking, a depiction of anything from the novels, the film's writer,
Beau DeMayo, was intent on creating something that worked within the canon and franchise.
In an interview with CBR, DeMayo discussed the challenge of delving into storylines the
books don't necessarily investigate, while simultaneously staying true to
their characters and narrative. He explained, "I started thinking about who was Vesemir at the
start of his career, before the horrible things that happened with the witchers in the canon."
In exploring these untapped arcs and focusing on what he called "that unanswerable mystery
in the 'Witcher,'" "Nightmare of the Wolf" touches on a number of themes integral to
Sapkowski's original works, and help give fans a deeper understanding of the dynamics of both
The Continent and the various factions within it. It's difficult not to read Sapkowski's original
saga as a commentary on the tumultuous and war-torn history of his home country of Poland.
"Nightmare of the Wolf" foregrounds themes such as class and racial divide, societal constructs,
and the symbiotic relationship between fear and violence, ignorance, and hate.
When we first meet Vesemir, he's a young, virile, witcher equivalent of a "bro-dude,"
focused mainly on collecting coin and living it up when he can. But the hunky hexer's laissez-faire
attitude belies a deep-seeded desire to rise above the impoverished social status of his youth.
Flashbacks to Vesemir's childhood reveal that he was born into servitude, and longed for nothing
more than to free himself, and his childhood love Illyana, from the shackles of their station.
At the beginning of his narrative, we're shown a Vesemir who still harbors hatred
for the nobility he so envies. But by the end of "Nightmare of the Wolf,"
he's determined to live for something more meaningful than glory, coin, and status.
Illyana faces her own fair share of classism when she grows into adulthood,
even as she rises through the ranks of society. In Vesemir's absence, Illyana marries the son of
the noble family that claims her, and upon his death, inherits his title: Advisor to the King.
It soon becomes clear, however, that even as Lady Zerbst, she has difficulty commanding the respect
her position should, by right, demand. Though her late husband clearly saw her as an equal,
the nobility and their ilk never do. In the end, it's Illyana's untimely death
that finally forces Vesemir to confront the misguidedness of his priorities.
Vesemir's priorities of coin and glory are shared and reinforced by his own mentor,
Deglan. When Vesemir tells the frightened, abandoned orphans at Kaer Morhen that they'll gain
strength, purpose, and respect as the next generation of witchers, he's merely parroting
what he was told by Deglan as a child. The need for this kind of purpose in life
is exactly what drives Deglan to engage in the mutagenic alchemy for which the witchers
are ultimately condemned, and nearly wiped out. He tells Vesemir, "Monsters were going
extinct -- I had to protect our way of life." Deglan feels forced to create new monsters
because it's only mankind's reliance on the witchers for protection from the world's
"scarier beasts" that keeps them from turning on and hunting down witchers. Now, they finally
have turned on the witchers, with a little push from the witcher-hating mage Tetra Gilcrest.
Though Illyana doesn't agree with Deglan's approach, she does tell Vesemir that
war was inevitable. As she puts it, "killing is easier than tolerating."
On the surface, Tetra is the most outspoken racist in "Nightmare of the Wolf."
Tetra even goes so far as to publish propaganda pamphlets denouncing witchers — whom she views as
corrupt mutations, in contrast to her "pure" mage lineage — as "rogues without virtue."
"It's not easy being a witcher. Trust me, I'd know."
In the end, we learn there's more to Tetra's hateful conviction than meets the eye.
Her fervent hatred of witchers stems from her experience with a single witcher,
an extremist who tricked a priest into believing that Tetra's mother was possessing him.
In the same way that Vesemir's experience with one particular nobleman as a child colored his
understanding of the world from there on out, Tetra's traumatic experience — with a radical,
rogue witcher — in turn radicalized her. "Might've slightly underestimated you. Slightly."
"The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf" highlights the interconnected, cyclical nature of many of
society's worst impulses. Ignorance begets fear, fear begets hate, hate begets violence, and so on.
In the end, only Illyana seems capable of breaking the cycle, when she asks Vesemir to forgive the
tragically mutated Kitsu for her murder. "Nightmare of the Wolf" repeatedly explores
the idea of illusion — both magical and metaphorical. For most of his life,
Vesemir is motivated by the illusion of wealth and status. Though, as a witcher, he obtains both,
it's a superficial victory, and one that doesn't ultimately bring him happiness. Moreover,
in the end, it's a literal illusion that causes him to kill the only woman he ever loved.
Although it's Vesemir who falls victim to the most devastating illusion of all,
it's Tetra who delivers the film's message to viewers. She tells Vesemir of the
mages' practice of casting illusions around undesirable foods, making them taste better,
before going on to explain that the telltale sign of an illusion is its bitter aftertaste.
There's more than a little irony embedded in the reaction that some fans had to "The Witcher"
Season 1 creators' decision not to use race, or even gender, as a basis for
casting canonical characters. When showrunner Lauren Hissrich was criticized for altering the
(arguably, only ever implied) races of various characters, she had this to say on Twitter:
"The Witcher is REALLY interesting when it comes to depicting racism because it's about
species, not skin color. What makes characters 'other' is the shape of their ears, height, etc.
In the books, no one pays attention to skin color. In the series... no one does either. Period."
In an instance of life imitating art, supposed die-hard fans of
Sapkowski's work directly embodied and made incarnate one of the saga's main allegories.
If "The Witcher" season 1 introduced audiences to the dynamics of the story's key players,
then "The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf" introduced them to a deeper
understanding of the dynamics of The Continent and its history -- and, in doing so, opened
the door for "The Witcher: Season 2" to answer some of the philosophical questions it poses.
"I need to understand some things." Although we don't discover which of
the Kaer Morhen orphans is the young White Wolf until the last
scene, the impact the events of the story have on his future mentor give audiences
a more thorough understanding of the upbringing that created the hero at the
heart of the Netflix series. "But they hate us."
"There'll always be another monster... Geralt." Check out one of our newest videos right here!
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