Henry Cavill was a man of few words playing Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher Season 1, as Geralt grunted his way in and out of gross situations hunting monsters. While he wound up in his fair share of sticky situations, perhaps none was stickier than the aftermath of Geralt killing a selkiemore off-screen and turning up in a tavern covered with its entrails. Now, as fans eagerly await the arrival of the second season before the end of the year, Cavill has opened up about filming the post-selkiemore scene and why it was actually quite steamy.
The Witcher star appeared during the WitcherCon event that celebrated both the show and the popular video games, and he told the story behind his memorable look as Geralt covered in selkiemore guts. Henry Cavill explained:
It was freezing cold outside, right? There wasn’t really a warm tent set up even though I was covered in, I think this was yogurt. Mostly yogurt and something else, and some kind of fruit, I think. And little bits of stuff to make it look like intestines. And I stood in front of the lights outside and I was like, ‘This is the good warm spot.’ And I realized I was smoking because it was so cold outside and all the liquid had heated up on my costume. And so I then said, ‘Look, we need to take advantage of this.’ I think it was [director Alex Garcia Lopez] who was shooting this, and he said, ‘This is amazing.’ And so if you watch it again, you’ll actually see smoke coming off me throughout the scene.
It may not have been steamy quite in the same way as the bathtub scene that Henry Cavill made iconic, but Cavill was quite literally steaming while getting ready to film the scene of Geralt arriving at the tavern covered in selkiemore guts. The actor of course wasn't actually covered in animal entrails, but I can't say that being slathered with yogurt and miscellaneous bits to look like intestines sounds like much fun either. But hey, the warm yogurt combined with the cold temperatures produced a smoky look! In case you missed it the first time around, take a look at the steam coming off of Cavill:
Joey Batey looks positively dapper (and dry) as Jaskier standing next to Henry Cavill all gooped up and steaming as Geralt in this particular scene, which took place early in a pretty key episode of the first season. Geralt went from killing a selkiemore for coin to accidentally aligning his destiny with Ciri's by claiming the law of surprise without knowing that Pavetta was pregnant, which was a great twist for viewers but left him with just one thing to say: "Fuck."
Geralt will finally embrace that destiny when Season 2 picks up, and the recently-released trailer reveals some of the intensity that is on the way. Netflix also announced the premiere date for Season 2: December 17, 2021. Season 2 will premiere nearly two years to the date after Season 1 launched on December 20, 2019.
The show is finally returning to Netflix after a whole lot of delays and some injuries, and there's a lot for fans to look forward to. Plus, Netflix has another Witcher project on the way during the wait for December 17, with the anime movie The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf releasing on Monday, August 23. For some non-Witcher viewing options, be sure to check out our 2021 summer TV premiere schedule!
