The Witcher: Monsters And Men

FOLLOWING ON FROM THE HUGELY POPULAR BOOKS AND VIDEOGAMES, THE WITCHER IS FINALLY BEING BROUGHT TO TV. SFX VISITS THE SET TO FIND OUT IF IT’LL BECOME THIS YEAR’S MUST-SEE FANTASY SHOW

- James Mottram

CLOSE TO THE Hungarian town of Baj, some 70km from Budapest, Henry Cavill is standing in a huge dome-like cavern. Usually it’s a wine cellar; today it’s been remodelled for one of the many sets for The Witcher, the new fantasy show from Netflix based on the hugely popular book series by Andrzej Sapkowski. Cavill, famed for playing Superman in the recent DC Comics movies, takes the lead, as Geralt of Rivia.

Currently, the team is working on episode seven – there are eight in total – amid what’s been an arduous seven-month shoot. In the middle of the room stands a giant well, with a beam of light shooting out from underneath. A cameraman follows Cavill, dressed in black leathers, with a sword on his back and long silver hair, as he prowls around the well. “That’s lovely, Henry,” says a voice from the gloom, as “cut” is called, and Cavill takes five.

Away from the set, showrunner Lauren Hissrich pitches up. A former writer on The West Wing, more recently she has worked on Marvel shows like Daredevil and The Defenders. “The world of The Witcher is really unique in that it takes this world of fantasy, adventure, fights, monsters, romance and witches... and yet Sapkowski thought it was really important to ground it in what was happening in the real world,” she says.

For the uninitiated, a Witcher is a beast-hunter – trained in deadly fighting skills and exposed to mutagens that grant them enhanced abilities, including the use of magic. This rarefied breed patrol The Continent, the unnamed setting for Sapkowski’s universe where elves, dwarves, humans and other creatures co-exist. “It’s really the European Lord Of The Rings, in a sense,” says Julian Parry, the show’s visual effects supervisor. Sapkowski, unsurprisingly, has been dubbed “the Polish Tolkien”.