Henry Cavill’s injury during the filming of The Witcher season 2 should be made canon and part of Geralt’s journey. In recent years, Netflix has become home to adaptations of various fan-favorite works, among those The Witcher, a series of short stories and novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The Witcher became more popular when it branched out to video games, and after being adapted into a movie and TV show in Poland in 2001 and 2002, an English version arrived at Netflix in December 2019, becoming one of the platform’s most popular titles.
Instead of focusing only on the title character, season 1 of Netflix’s The Witcher followed three characters in different places and points in time, with their paths converging towards the end of the season. These characters are Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), the title witcher; Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), a powerful sorceress with a tragic past; and Ciri (Freya Allan), the crown princess of Cintra. Netflix knew well how popular The Witcher is and renewed the series for a second season before the first one was released, and season 2 will further explore the connection between Geralt and Ciri, as well as the story of Yennefer.
The Witcher season 2 will be mostly based on Book of Elves, and will see Geralt taking Ciri to Kaer Morhen, an old keep where witchers of the School of the Wolf used to be trained, among those Geralt. Ciri will be trained there by not only Geralt but also fellow witchers Eskel (Basil Eidenbenz), Lambert (Paul Bullion), Coën (Yasen Atour), and Vesemir (Kim Bodnia), Geralt’s mentor and father figure to all of them. The Witcher season 2 has a release date of December 2021, which is a relief for fans as production of season 2 went through many obstacles. Production was halted twice after some positive COVID cases among the cast and crew, and Cavill was later injured on-set, with production continuing without him – but the show should make his injury canon, and it would give Geralt’s journey a little push.
In December 2020, it was reported that Henry Cavill was injured and thus was “expected to be sidelined for a short period of time” while the rest continued filming. It took Cavill a while to recover, but he eventually rejoined filming, and The Witcher season 2 wrapped production in April 2021. Given how long it took Cavill to fully recover and all the delays they had already gone through due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Witcher should make Cavill’s injury canon, giving Geralt some vulnerability in the process. Although Geralt was injured a couple of times in season 1, he always received help right on time, but now that he’s running away with Ciri to keep her safe and they’re on their way to Kaer Morhen, it would be interesting to see him injured and struggling, and this would also allow the audience to see how the dynamic between Geralt and Ciri has been developing.
It’s unknown if the crew of The Witcher had to use tricks in order to shoot Geralt’s scenes without further hurting Cavill or if they incorporated the injury into the series, allowing Cavill to take it easier and also not forcing him to hide his physical discomfort. Truth is that an injured Geralt would do more good to the character and his story than an always healthy and unscratched witcher, especially during his and Ciri’s journey to Kaer Morhen, where they could come across many dangers that could hurt him, making Cavill’s injury part of the show.