Netflix’s The Witcher panel at San Diego Comic-Con unveiled a teaser trailer starring the bewigged Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, the loner monster hunter who is struggling to find his place in a world where beasts are (mostly) less wicked than people. Fans of the video game were pleased earlier this week by the unveiling of Geralt’s horse, Roach, but this trailer’s the first real chance to deliver upon what showrunner Melissa Hissrich has promised, which is that this shall be “a very adult show.” Well, we’ve already seen a poster with Geralt’s posterior, and Hissrich further revealed during the panel that the series would contain sex scenes, so yeah, we should probably expect some strong viewing numbers from Cavill fans, even if gamers don’t love the adaptation.
How’s the trailer look? Not bad, actually, and the atmosphere is begging to be referred to as “epic.” We see Cavill engaging in some surprisingly skillful swordsmanship during battle scenes, which should perhaps quell the concerns about Geralt’s (alleged) lesser devotion to swords in this series. At least, folks noticed that he was only carrying one sword instead of two in the stills released thus far by Netflix. Never fear, Cavill’s Geralt is into swords. However, the ginormous spider-monster at the end of the teaser can go away right now, so I hope he squishes or pulverizes it or something.
Spiders = not good. The rest of the trailer feels solid-ish, though? I expected this to look much less polished, and the wigs are pretty awful, but the action scenes look kind-of spectacular, and the tone doesn’t seem that campy. Cavill told the Comic-Con audience that he was devoted to learning how to handle a sword. “I spent all of my free time with a sword in my hand,” he divulged. “Just getting used to it. I had three swords where I lived and four at work.”
Hissrich confirmed previous reports that she considered over 200 other Geralt candidates before realizing who was the correct man for the role. Cavill also apparently didn’t use a stunt double. Oh boy.
Netflix’s The Witcher will arrive sometime in 2019.