The Witcher is back for Season Three and this time, it’s in two parts! It’s also the last season of Henry Cavill as Geralt and sees monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture young Ciri. While Geralt takes Ciri into hiding, Yennefer is entrusted with Ciri’s magical training and leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where they hope to uncover more about the girl’s untapped powers; instead, they discover they’ve landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery.

We spoke to the series stars Therica Wilson-Read and MyAnna Buring who play mages Sabrina Glevissig and Tissaia de Vries about being part of the mega juggernaut that is The Witcher…

This season sees the Mages take a central role, with Araeuza being host to the Mage Ball, a central event which will bring politics and the major characters of the series together for one night of intrigue, back-stabbing and some fabulous costumes.

But what’s it like actually being on those sets and seeing Aretuza in real life…?

The Witcher Season 3 volume one and two are out now. Watch more like this at the SciFiNow YouTube channel.

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“The family unit is something that we see in the books, but it’s almost immediately ripped apart again and then built back together and apart again,” Joey Batey tells us who plays Jaskier. “For me, that’s how families work. It’s about constant forgiveness and constant listening and understanding. And that’s what this family unit is learning to do.”

Indeed, after Yennefer’s betrayal of Ciri and Geralt last season, it’s not quite smooth sailing. “There’s been a year between the betrayal and how we begin season three,” explains Anya Chalotra, who plays Yennefer. “This dynamic that we have has been a year in the making, and even still, it’s quite rocky at the beginning of season three.”

This season really sees Ciri leaning on that family as she begins to understand who she is and what her role is: “She begins [the season] trying to confront her power,” says Freya Allan who plays her. “She’s often on the run from it and now she’s taking it on with the help from Yennefer.

“Ultimately, I think she wants this family together, and to stay together. But she’s battling with a lot of things. Her future and past and how that affects where she wants to take her future.”

Yep, Ciri has been through quite a journey from the young princess we saw in Season One. She’s discovered she has Elder Blood, magical powers, and she’s also a dab hand at fighting these days. 

The last episode of Season Two saw Ciri trapped in a memory of a banquet, where she was reunited with her late grandmother, Mousesack, and her parents. But Ciri decides to resist the dream and return to the real world to her new makeshift family, and the ripples of her experiences from Season Two are still keenly felt in Season Three.

“She has these idealistic views, but ultimately, confronting her past is what leads to her going down the path that she does, which is actually quite far from what she originally envisioned for herself,” Freya explains. “I think that the experiences that she goes through towards the end [of Season Three] kind of brings her back down to the reality, to the brutality of this continent.”

The brutality of the continent has also affected Jaskier, and this season sees him being a little more serious. “His role has become a bit more avuncular, he’s become less of the performative goon that he has been, and is now a bit more of the listener. He’s almost a soundboard to a lot of the other characters,” Batey tells us. “People often come to him going ‘I don’t know what to do’ and he goes ‘well, me neither, but do you want to talk about it?’. I think that’s his role for the time being.”

Another new role that we’ll see in Season Three is Yennefer leaning into a motherly relationship with Ciri. “She’s entering a completely different phase to something she’s been in for 100 odd years,” Chalotra tells us. “But she’s never really felt this much in control of herself. Because she has to. She’s got something bigger to look to look out for now. That’s the first time we ever see that in her.”

With Season Two seeing Yennefer betraying Geralt’s trust and taking Ciri to Voleth Meir, to trade her in exchange for the return of her powers (before ultimately deciding not to), that bond takes a while to establish. Understandably… 

“Coming back from that betrayal, I didn’t know how I was going to become Ciri’s mother, or that maternal figure so quickly, but I think we found that quite organically in the limited scenes that we had,” Chalotra explains. “We knew that we had to achieve that.”

“From my side, I think Ciri’s seeing Yennefer as this teacher, in a way and I think that is how their relationship has progressed,” adds Freya. “She sees the practicality of Yennefer initially. Also they have this sort of commonality that they felt between each other in Season Two. But I think it’s the practicality and the trust in Geralt for Ciri that allows her to go on that journey with Yennefer and then ultimately, naturally their relationship and trust builds.”

For Freya, who has played the character since she was just 18 years old, it’s been a pretty poignant journey to delve into a character and her relationships over the three seasons of the show we’ve had so far. “It’s really emotional,” she nods. “When you’ve played a character for this many years, and you as yourself have also grown alongside that character, there is this very emotional attachment you have. 

“So any scenario where you’re confronting that path is strangely very deep and easy to tap into. Because it’s there, you’ve lived it. I think the beauty of getting to play a character over years is you have that history with the character and so it feels very real.” 

Season 3 Volume 1 launches globally on Netflix on 29 June, 2023. Season 3 Volume 2 on 27 July, 2023 

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The journey begins at the Belleteyn Festival where singing Bards will guide you into the maze, but beware of the unexpected, a beast lurks within. Find your way out and you shall be rewarded, as you digitally capture your moment of glory and bask in your bravery at The Witcher Bathhouse.

Mark down the below in the diary folks!

Dates: Thursday 29th June – Sunday 2nd July

Timing: Open from 10:30am

Venue: The Outernet, Tottenham Court Road, London

Admission: Free

For those who can’t make it to London for the maze experience, Netflix will also be sending a Witcher themed ice cream van to 15 towns across the UK over the summer, those include –

Friday 23rd June – Bristol

Saturday 24th June – Swansea

29th June – 2nd July – London, The Outernet

Thursday 6th July – Leeds

Friday 7th July – Sheffield

Saturday 8th July – Manchester

Sunday 9th July – Liverpool

Friday 14th July – Newcastle

Saturday 15th July – Edinburgh

Sunday 16th July – Glasgow

Monday 17th July – Belfast

Thursday 20th July – Portsmouth

Friday 21st July – Brighton

Saturday 22nd July – Bournemouth

Sunday 23rd July – Plymouth

The Witcher Maze is restricted to those aged 13+ only. Under 18’s must be accompanied by an adult. Opening times and queue times may vary. No guaranteed entry.

Season 3 Volume 1 launches globally on Netflix on 29 June, 2023. Season 3 Volume 2 on 27 July, 2023 

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There is fire, swords and fangs all up in your business for the first full trailer for The Witcher Season 3, part one of which will be landing on Netflix this month.

Check it out here…

In The Witcher Season 3, as monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture her, Geralt takes Ciri into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Entrusted with Ciri’s magical training, Yennefer leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where they hope to uncover more about the girl’s untapped powers; instead, they discover they’ve landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery.  They must fight back, put everything on the line – or risk losing each other forever.

The Witcher Season 3 will comprise eight episodes and stars Henry Cavill (Man Of Steel), Anya Chalotra (Wanderlust), Freya Allan (Gunpowder Milkshake), and Joey Batey (The Witcher: Blood And Origin).

It also stars Myanna Buring (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1), Eamon Farren (Twin Peaks), Mimî M Khayisa (Catherine Called Birdy), Royce Pierreson (The Irregulars), Anna Shaffer (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), Mecia Simson (Brave New World), Tom Canton (Truth Seekers), Mahesh Jadu (The Witcher), Graham McTavish (Outlander), Cassie Clare (The Sandman), Hugh Skinner (The Windsors), Wilson Mbomio (Hunter Street), Lars Mikkelsen (Star Wars: Rebels), Terence Maynard (The Dark Tower), Simon Callow (Hawkeye), Liz Carr (Good Omens), and Therica Wilson-Read (Suicide Club).

The Witcher Season 3 Volume 1 will launch globally on 29 June, and Volume 2 on 27 July 2023. Watch more trailers at the SciFiNow YouTube channel.

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We’re heading back to the magical world of The Witcher this summer to reunite with Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer for The Witcher Season Three.

Check out the first poster above and watch the teaser here…

In The Witcher Season 3, as monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture her, Geralt takes Ciri into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Entrusted with Ciri’s magical training, Yennefer leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where they hope to uncover more about the girl’s untapped powers; instead, they discover they’ve landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery.  They must fight back, put everything on the line – or risk losing each other forever.

Here are some first-look images from the upcoming series…

The Witcher Season 3 will comprise eight episodes and stars Henry Cavill (Man Of Steel), Anya Chalotra (Wanderlust), Freya Allan (Gunpowder Milkshake), and Joey Batey (The Witcher: Blood And Origin).

It also stars Myanna Buring (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1), Eamon Farren (Twin Peaks), Mimî M Khayisa (Catherine Called Birdy), Royce Pierreson (The Irregulars), Anna Shaffer (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), Mecia Simson (Brave New World), Tom Canton (Truth Seekers), Mahesh Jadu (The Witcher), Graham McTavish (Outlander), Cassie Clare (The Sandman), Hugh Skinner (The Windsors), Wilson Mbomio (Hunter Street), Lars Mikkelsen (Star Wars: Rebels), Terence Maynard (The Dark Tower), Simon Callow (Hawkeye), Liz Carr (Good Omens), and Therica Wilson-Read (Suicide Club).

The Witcher Season 3 Volume 1 will launch globally on 29 June, and Volume 2 on 27 July 2023

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When you got the call to be in this series, was it a surprise, or were you quite excited? Were you expecting it?

JB: No, I wasn’t! Declan [de Barra, who created Blood Origin] and I get on really well. He worked on Season One of The Witcher and is one of my favourite writers, he gave me a call and said “hey, we’ve got this idea”, and then we shot something whilst they were all shooting the show, it was a big song and dance number. And Bear McCreary wrote the song and it was quite fun. It was a fun opening.

Then I got another call from Declan – this was the surprising one! – whilst I was shooting the third season of The Witcher and said “we’re going to do it at all again, it’s going to be totally different, it’s going to be mayhem and carnage!” And I was like: “Cool!”. I was shooting Witcher S3 on Monday, then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on Blood Origin, and then back to Witcher S3. I was shooting till four in the morning. But I wanted to be involved because Declan is fantastic, I would walk across hot coals for him, I think he’s amazing.

Fans are quite devout about this show already. So when they heard that you were kind of returning in some shape or form, the internet went crazy as your character has been so embraced by my friends. Has all of that sunk in yet?

JB: I’m not particularly an internet man. I’m not particularly savvy with Twitter and Instagram but some friends were showing me some of the Tweets and there is so much lovely supportive energy to the fandom and huge ownership that they have over the cannon and have a protective nature over Mr. Sapkowski’s wonderful work and Henry’s performance for example.

It’s really nice when you see them complimenting you too, it’s like thank you. Everyone on the show is working so hard to try and create something that is a little bit new, different, and engaging, and the blood, sweat, and tears that everyone throws into it are astounding.

How challenging has it been in terms of your character now you are three seasons deep into both his and the show’s mythology?

JB: The myth of the man! Season Three was particularly challenging for everyone. It was a really, really hard shoot but very rewarding and I think everyone in any interview will now say it was the hardest one we’ve ever done. It was the biggest version of the show we’ve ever done, even bigger than this, and just keeps getting bigger every single year, and the days get longer,  you’re shooting multiple units on the same day, running from scene to scene, it can be really fatiguing and galling at times.

Yet, at the end of it, you can see the hard work that everyone’s put into it, no one more so than then Henry who has just the sheer athleticism. Again, you can see the hard work and I hope fans recognise that and see how much we love it.

How is the changing of the guard regarding Henry Cavill and Liam Hemsworth? It’s not uncommon for such things to happen in television over the years but fans have been having their say. What was your reaction to it all heading into the fourth season?

JB: I think it’ll sink in a little bit more when Liam comes in next year. But of course, we’ll miss him [Cavill]. I’ll miss him. He’s a really, really good pal. We were texting the other day and speaking about how weird it will be not seeing him every day. But Liam is attacking this role with serious ferocity, which is exciting and I can’t wait for that freshness and new energy he’s going to bring to the set. I think it’s going to be good.

The Witcher: Blood Origin arrives on Netflix on December 25th

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