The Witcher offered fans a lot to love about Season 1 when the Netflix mega hit dropped last December. But, among all of the awesome monster-fighting, action-packed sword play, sexy naked times, fun bard-singing and fan-approved Geralt-bathing, one thing we didn't get was to see the de facto family of Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri adventuring around together. The fantastical drama spent most of its eight episodes with the main trio traversing the Continent without even knowing one another, but the showrunner has given us a hint of what we'll see now that Geralt and Ciri have finally been "forced together."
Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, showrunner for The Witcher, has had a long while to puzzle over what Season 2 would bring fans, and it sounds like she's quite pumped about everyone getting to watch Geralt and Ciri as they become a family. Schmidt Hissrich spoke to The Wrap recently about their new dynamic, and had this to say:
What I think is really fun about Geralt and Ciri is they are the most unexpected family you can imagine. You have a witcher whose sole job is to kill things for money and you have a little girl who is trying to escape her past and it’s like, how do they come together? And to me, one of the most fun things we get to explore in Season 2 now is how they get to change and shift each other. Coming out of Season 1, you have a pretty good sense of who Ciri is, you have a pretty good sense of who Geralt is. And now we get to throw that all in a blender and see what happens when two people who are completely different have to be forced together in circumstances.
Geralt, of course, was granted wardship over Ciri when he invoked the Law of Surprise after saving her father's life. When war destroys Ciri's kingdom and leads to her grandmother dying from injuries sustained in battle, the young girl sets off to find Geralt on her late grandmother's wishes, but the journey to find him isn't as quick or easy she probably hoped. Ciri is forced to grow up and deal with a lot of danger and turmoil in a short amount of time, so when she finally (accidentally) comes upon Geralt, she's already a very different person than she had been.
By this time, though, Geralt has already spent several decades Witchering around and killing monsters for money, when he realizes that he's going to have to take his duty to Ciri seriously, especially once he sees what's happened to her home and those who had been caring for her in his absence. He certainly hadn't been looking for a surrogate daughter, but by the time they finally meet, he's ready to accept the challenge.
As Lauren Schmidt Hissrich noted, Geralt and Ciri have been living very different lives, and while they had been looking for each other, this doesn't mean that working together and dealing with everything the Continent will throw at them will be smooth sailing, especially at the start. But, if Schmidt Hissrich is correct, it sounds like watching how they relate to each other will be a treat for fans:
It’s not always pretty. They will argue. They will fight. It will be two strangers coming together for the first time and being told, ‘Nope, you’re gonna be together forever.’ I think that their growth together into being a father and daughter is one of my favorite parts of the series.
I can't wait! The Witcher had to delay filming on Season 2 just like tons of other shows, obviously, but hopefully, they will be able to get back into production on August 17, as is the current plan. For more on what to watch right now, check out our 2020 Netflix guide, and see what's coming to TV this summer!
