Henry Cavill has said that Geralt, his character in The Witcher, will be more talkative and have fewer F-bombs than in the show's previous season. The Witcher season 1 was released in 2019 and broke current viewership records for Netflix at the time, and is still one of the streaming giant's most-viewed series. Based on the book series The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski, and the subsequent video games of the same name, The Witcher follows Geralt of Rivia, one of the last monster slayers known as 'witchers,' still alive.
Fans of the show will know that Geralt was quite reclusive in The Witcher season 1, and certainly wasn't opposed to dropping a few swear words when things got tense. Of the few relationships Geralt allows, his relationship with Yennefer is where Geralt allows himself to be the most open throughout the show. Whilst he has other friendships, such as with the bard Jaskier, the monster slayer is quite cold and distant with most of the people he interacts with. The Witcher season 1 presents Geralt as a character who normally likes to do things by himself, and curse a lot whilst doing them, even though it is clear that he cares about the people closest to him.
However, despite his efforts to keep to himself in season 1, Cavill has detailed how Geralt will be different in the upcoming season of The Witcher. In an interview with GamesRadar, Cavill revealed why Geralt has changed so much between seasons, and how his language will be different as a result. Cavill said he wanted to make Geralt "more verbose" in season 2, which he put down to grunting and swearing less. The actor explained that he wanted his character to be "more intellectual" to more accurately reflect the original novel's version of Geralt. Read Cavill's full comments below:
"For this season, I wanted to push really hard to make sure he was more verbose ... "There’s always the risk of a character becoming a bit tropey and just comedic by grunting and saying the F-word, and not being representative of the talent of [The Witcher series author Andrzej Sapkowski]. Again, I really worked very hard to make him more intellectual, have an expanded vocabulary and be representative of a guy 70-plus years old."
The Witcher season 2 will see Geralt in a very different place than before. After being persuaded to honor The Law of Surprise towards the end of season 1, season 2 will see Geralt take Ciri under his wing. As well as training and protecting Ciri, Geralt will also be crossing paths will old friends Yennefer and Jaskier, leaving him in a position where he will be relying on and looking out for others more than audiences had seen during The Witcher season 1. Given all of these interactions, it's understandable how the character may find himself becoming more talkative as the events of season 2 unfold.
Some viewers had been unhappy about how Geralt had been characterized in the show, as they felt he was a more gregarious and friendly character in the original Witcher books. Coupled with the character's clear compassion for people, despite his attempts to seem distant and cold, it feels like a natural progression for Geralt to isolate himself from people less. This is especially true as he finds himself in a situation where he will be working with Ciri for the foreseeable future. With Geralt being more talkative and intellectual, it will be interesting to see what other ways he and the other The Witcher characters will grow in season 2, and what lessons they've learned from their first adventures.
Source: GamesRadar