The Witcher has been forced to hit the pause button on production as filming Season 2 continued this week. The hit Netflix show had already seen a lengthy hiatus in filming due to the worldwide pandemic. Now, 4 crew members have tested positive for COVID-19. It isn’t known quite yet when filming will resume.
News of The Witcher having to pause production comes just shortly after it was announced that The CW was halting filming for their reboot of Charmed, which came after one crew member tested positive for Coronavirus. Cases across the country continue to surge this weekend. And it’s clear that many more productions may be forced to temporarily shutter over the next couple of weeks. Seeing as how we’re headed into the holiday season, these crews may not be called back to work until after the new year.
The Witcher had four different crew members test positive for the disease on Saturday, which means that the set had been infected. Netflix executed an isolated round of testing for everyone involved in the show’s production shortly after the results came back. No one in the lead cast has been infected at this time. They are all currently being isolated until further notice.
The Witcher had just moved from on-location shoots this past week, with star Henry Cavill confirming that production was moving into Arborfield Studios, which is located west of London, England. Netflix will only resume filming on the studio set once it is determined that it is fully safe to do so.
Production on The Witcher Season 2 originally had to be halted way bak in March. At that time, actor Kristofer Hivju, who plays Nivellen, had a Coronavirus test come back positive. The show took the next 6 months off, with production not resuming until mid-August. Everyone working on the show at that time had to abide by the UK’s new COVID-19 filming protocols. There will be at least a 7 month delay in the schedule, which throws the Season 2 release date into question. The show was originally set to return in 2021 but it could get pushed all the way to 2022 at this rate. No release date has been confirmed by Netflix, and it is unclear how many episodes have finished filming.
The cast consists of Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, Freya Allen as Ciri, Eamon Farren as Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg, Joey Batey as Jaskier, MyAnna Buring as Tissaia de Vries, Royce Pierreson as Istredd, Mimi Ndiweni as Fringilla Vigo, Wilson Radjou-Pujalte as Dara, Anna Shaffer as Triss Merigold and Mahesh Jadu as Vilgefortz of Roggeveen. At this time, Kristofer Hivju is the only actor in the cast to have contracted the coronavirus. Updates are coming, but further word on when production can resume won’t arrive until at least next week. This news was originally reported at Deadline.
