Brace yourselves: The Witcher Season 2 may be even more musical than Season 1. During a panel at the Television Critics Association press tour this Thursday, series showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich told reporters that the second season of the Netflix series would contain "some pretty great songs."
This is, of course, following on the addictive chart-topping success of "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher," as originally performed by Jaskier the bard (Joey Batey) in Season 1. Hissrich said that "we obviously are incredibly proud of what we had done and you just hope that fans show up and embrace, you know, the way that you're telling the story. We had great high hopes that there would be a song that stuck."
This was of course the case with "Toss a Coin," and Hissrich noted that even in the editing room, she and the sound team would "come back in the morning and everyone would be like, oh, that song was in my head all night. So we hoped it would have the same effect for fans."
When it comes to Season 2, Hissrich confirmed that Jaskier would be back with more songs, and (while avoiding spoilers) mentioned that one of them "is a great moment for Angela's character."
Freya Allan, who plays princess-on-the-run Ciri, was on the panel, and added that "I'm excited for you all to see that bit."
While the show is of course focused on the adventures of its titular superhuman monster hunter (played by Henry Cavill), Ciri was a pivotal figure in Season 1, and later in the panel, Hissrich teased that the character's role would be evolving in Season 2.
"One of my regrets is that the Ciri story ended up being reduced to her kind of running from things all the time. And my favorite thing in [Season 2] is that Siri plants her feet and starts fighting back," she said.
Fighting of course means fight training, something which Allan engaged with a lot. "Part of the journey between Ciri and Geralt this season is also one that involves training to be a Witcher, and Freya would send me videos of herself learning to sword fight before we started production," Hissrich said. "In Season 2, the stunt team was amazed because she's just a natural and there was such, I mean, Freya you're so fearless on this show, both in your emotional performance, but also in your physical one."
The panel also included Anya Chalotra, who discussed how the fate of her character, sorceress Yennifer of Vengerberg, after Season 1 would be a big part of the season. "After her victory at the Battle of Sodden Hill, she's captured in whereabouts unknown, and she has to survive being a prisoner of war. Um, we know who that she meets Ciri in this season. Which is exciting. She goes back to Aretuza and she has to navigate that situation there after everyone thought she had died. Um, and we just get a lot deeper into Yennifer's mind. I mean, what's lovely is that we established the background in Season 1 and now I think the choices she makes in Season 2 will resonate with people a lot more and hopefully they'll be able to emphasize empathize with them with those choices."
The Witcher Season 2 will premiere December 17, 2021 on Netflix. Season 1 is streaming now.