Line #10 Trivia/TheWitcher2019


1	* ActorInspiredElement: Steve Wall, who played Boholt, felt that the East London inspired accent for the Reavers in the video game didn't really fit with the setting. So he based his character's accent off the series' Slovakian fight choreographer, Creator/VladimirFurdik.
2	* ApprovalOfGod:
3	** Creator/AndrzejSapkowski, who famously [[DisownedAdaptation criticized]] the [[Series/TheHexer Polish film and TV adaptations]], was favorable towards the Netflix series and called Henry Cavill a "real professional". Past Season 2 though, he's shown some indifference and said "I've seen better. I've seen worse."
4	** Creator/DougCockle, the voice of Geralt in the video game series, tweeted that he loved the Netflix series and praised its cast.
5	* AwesomeDearBoy: Creator/HenryCavill is a passionate fan of the franchise (games and books), so he lobbied hard for the chance to play Geralt of Rivia. In interviews, Cavill admitted to "badgering" his agents for a chance to meet the script writer Lauren Schmidt Hissrich long before the script was even written. Both Cavill and Schmidt Hissrich said he was really "annoying", but Cavill would not let the chance to play Geralt pass him by if he could help it. Hence him stepping away from the role after Season 3 came off as a shock to many. He hasn't said much about the reasons that had him quit, but many clues point towards CreativeDifferences.
6	* TheCastShowOff: Creator/JoeyBatey (who plays Jaskier) does his own singing. He also ''already plays the lute'', having learned how when he was playing Mark Smeaton in the theatrical rendition of ''Literature/WolfHall''. For the second season he co-wrote Jaskier's new songs.
7	* CreatorBacklash: Some of the actors have been open with their own criticisms and regrets after production.
8	** Creator/JoeyBatey has admitted he's grown sick of "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher", as it's very much ''not'' his kind of song but he's been repeatedly hounded by it since. He has said though that Jaskier's music in the second season is much more his taste.
9	** Creator/FreyaAllan has admitted that the DawsonCasting left her with some insecurities about her appearance, as she was a 17-year-old playing a little girl; being told she looked like a young child as she was literally turning into an adult (and was legally an adult in the UK) had left her with a bit of a complex, apparently. Ciri's growth in the second season as she's now a teenager at least allowed her to be dressed more maturely, so she felt more comfortable with it.
10	* DarkhorseCasting: Outside of Creator/HenryCavill, Creator/JodhiMay and Creator/LarsMikkelsen, the cast is made of little known names, especially for some sizeable roles such as Creator/FreyaAllan as Ciri, Creator/JoeyBatey as Jaskier, and Creator/AnyaChalotra as Yennefer.
11	* DawsonCasting: The show's [[https://www.witchernetflix.com/en-gb official timeline]] allows the audience to know the age of several of the characters, showing several instances of this trope:
12	** Ciri is between 12 and 13 years old around the time of the fall of Cintra. Freya Allan, who plays her, was 17 during the filming of the first season, though being rather short (5'3") and petite, along with costuming and makeup, helped her look considerably younger. In season 2, less effort is made to make her look too much younger as Ciri has grown to about 14-15, which ''is'' when girls usually experience puberty, at least.
13	** Renfri is 18 years old when she met Geralt. Creator/EmmaAppleton was 27 during the filming of the first season.
14	** Jaskier is 18 years old when he meets Geralt. Creator/JoeyBatey was 29 during the filming of the first season.
15	* DuelingWorks:
16	** The first season came out one month after Creator/DisneyPlus's ''Series/TheMandalorian''. Both are high profile streaming fantasy shows centered around a lone drifting BountyHunter protagonist who becomes the protector/surrogate father of a child with special powers.
17	** It also came out the same year as the GrandFinale season of another gritty high profile {{fantasy}} show, ''Series/GameOfThrones''.
18	* DyeingForYourArt:
19	** Henry Cavill, having already bulked up for Superman, did even more for this role. He went even further for the iconic bathtub scene, dehydrating himself for three days to thin out his skin and make his muscles pop.
20	** During the first season Freya Allen's eyebrows were bleached to match Ciri's blonde hair. The process was so damaging that for the second season she refused to do it anymore in case it permanently ruined her eyebrows.
21	* FandomNod: In "Redanian Intelligence" a bit character comments on a song Jaskier wrote, apparently covering the events of the first season. He says the multiple timelines were hard to follow and that Borch Three Jackdaws being [[spoiler:a dragon]] was a CaptainObviousReveal[[invoked]], mirroring critical reactions to the first season.
22	* FollowTheLeader: While the ultimate product is still its own, there's no denying that ''Series/GameOfThrones'''s runaway success is largely responsible for Creator/{{Netflix}} greenlighting a medieval-ish DarkFantasy series based off a series of novels and filled with violence, nudity and even a dash of geopolitics.
23	* FriendshipOnTheSet: Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) and Joey Batey (Jaskier) describe themselves as best friends both on and off the set, having grown very close during filming. They frequently give interviews together and have a lot of fun.
24	* MemeAcknowledgement: The infamous Geralt-in-a-bathtub scene from ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'' is reenacted in one of the episodes. Unlike in the game, the scene is actually written with a particular context in the books.
25	* MultipleLanguagesSameVoiceActor: Marcin Czarnik (Ronin Mage) and Maciej Musiał (Sir Lazlo) played their on-camera roles in English and dubbed their lines for the Polish version.
26	* NewbieBoom: The series has caused a significant increase in sales of both the books and the games (''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'' especially). Steam recorded more players playing the third game in the weeks after the show's release than in the weeks after the game's release.
27	* OnSetInjury: Creator/HenryCavill tore his hamstring while filming Season 2. He admits that an injury like this could have ended his acting career.
28	* TheOtherDarrin:
29	** None of the Polish or English voice actors from the video game trilogy reprised their roles.
30	** In the Japanese dub, almost no one from the dub cast from ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', the only game of the game trilogy dubbed to Japanese, reprise their roles here, including Geralt, who was switched from Creator/KazuhiroYamaji to Creator/HirokiTochi instead.
31	** In October 2022 it was shockingly announced that Creator/HenryCavill would be leaving the show after the third season and that Creator/LiamHemsworth would be taking over the role of Geralt starting with the fourth season.
32	* TheOtherMarty: Thue Ersted Rasmussen was originally cast as Eskel for Season 2, but scheduling issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to drop out in favor of Basil Eidenbenz.
33	* PromotedFanboy:
34	** Henry Cavill is a big fan of both the games and the books. You can see him [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmds6fepiCw&ab_channel=IGN here]] briefly fanboying over them and saying he would love to play Geralt in the show. This was one month before it was announced he was playing the role. Also, one promotional video has him reading passages from the books.
35	** Liam Hemsworth has also [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CkTv8jXyj2l/ mentioned]] being a fan and being excited to play Geralt after Cavill's departure.
36	* RenewedBeforePremiere: Season 2 was announced one month ahead of Season 1's premiere. Season 3 was announced a whole ''four months'' before Season 2 premiered.
37	* RoleReprise: In the Polish dub, Michał Żebrowski reprised his roles as Geralt from the [[Series/TheHexer 2001 film as well as the subsequent TV series]], and is the only surviving original cast member to make a return.
38	* SeparatedAtBirthCasting: Gaia Mondadori and Freya Allan bear a [[https://thewitcher.tv/images/article-images/0041-image-1.jpg striking resemblance to each other]]; it's only fitting, they play mother and daughter on the series.
39	* StarMakingRole: For Creator/JoeyBatey (Jaskier), Creator/FreyaAllan (Ciri), and Creator/AnyaChalotra (Yennefer).
40	* ThrowItIn: Henry Cavill started out using his normal speaking voice, as the crew had specifically instructed as Doug Cockle's raspy voice in the video games was so popular and they wanted to avoid comparisons as much as possible. Then after coming back from a Christmas break, Cavill accidentally started using a similar raspy voice, which worked so well they decided to keep it in.
41	* TroubledProduction: The production of Season 2 was shut down due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. Creator/KristoferHivju tested positive for the virus. In late June the producers announced that filming would resume in mid-August. Thue Ersted Rasmussen, who was slated to play Geralt's fellow Witcher Eskel, could not attend the rescheduled filming despite having already filmed some of his own scenes before the pandemic, resulting in his character being [[TheOtherMarty recast]]. Production had to pause again in November after four members of the crew tested positive for the virus and resumed after a two week quarantine. And unrelated to the pandemic, Henry Cavill injured his leg which forced the production to focus on scenes not involving Geralt until he recovered.
42	* WagTheDirector: [[spoiler:Roach's death scene]] was originally meant to be PlayedForLaughs as a nod to how [[spoiler:all of Geralt's horses are named Roach.]] However, Henry Cavill protested against this and submitted the next day his own draft of how the scene should play out in which the scene was more sombre. This draft impressed the showrunners so much that it was included into the final script.
43	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
44	** Cavill wanted Geralt's bathtub scene to contain a more explicit reference to the games by doing the exact pose, but the tub wasn't shaped the right way to let him do it.
45	** The initial plan was to have Ciri as the primary viewpoint character and narrator, even beginning with events from toward the end of the book series where she takes center stage. The showrunners decided against it as Geralt would end up such a minor character that it wouldn’t make any sense to name the show after him.
46	** [[https://www.pixoloid.net/pixoloid/portfolio/the-witcher/ The concept art for the series]] shows a radically different look for the Dryads than what ended up in the finished product, showing what looks like green plant matter growing on or under their skin, getting increasingly prominent as they age, as well as branch-like growths in their hair. The Caucasian elves were also portrayed as being deathly pale and extremely skinny.
47	** The show was initially conceived as a movie. But Kelly Luegenbiehl, Vice President of International Originals at Netflix, convinced the producers to change it to a series since she felt that there was too much material to adapt for a 2-hour film.
48	** Creator/MillieBrady was originally cast as Princess Renfri, but she was later replaced by Emma Appleton.
49	** For Season 2, the showrunners intended for Ciri's interactions with Triss to have a "school girl crush" undertones with the young tween Ciri developing an immediate crush on the older woman, but due to the delay in-between seasons, Freya Allen ended up being just too mature looking for it to come off as such (she "wasn't a school girl anymore", as they put it). As they weren't confident on how to portray a one-sided queer crush with sensitivity, they opted to wait for a better point in the story to establish Ciri's bisexuality.
50	* WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings: Anya Chalotra faced so much racist backlash about her character's RaceLift that she deleted her Twitter account. Triss' actress, Creator/AnnaShaffer, and several other Race Lifted characters faced similar abuse; prior to her casting, a rumoured casting breakdown lead people to believe Ciri would similarly receive a RaceLift, which lead to ''extensive'' backlash towards the showrunner, forcing her to inform people the casting breakdown was fake.
51	* WordOfGay: Showrunners have confirmed that Ciri is bisexual (as she was the novels and games) and that future seasons will explore this aspect of her character.
52	* YouSoundFamiliar: In the Japanese dub, Creator/MiyukiSawashiro, who voiced Ciri in ''Wild Hunt'', voices Renfri in the TV series.

Context Trivia / TheWitcher2019