Geralt fights fire and elves in bloody and brutal first clip for The Witcher season 3
Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer get ambushed at the Shaerrawedd
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The first extended clip forThe Witcher season 3has been released online, and it seems everyone’s favorite trio of heroes will see their fair share of action when the hit show returns.
Released duringTudum 2023, the latest installment ofNetflix’s global fan event, the two-minute-long video pits Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer against the fire-wielding Rience and other elves who have come to kidnap Ciri for their own nefarious means.
Unsurprisingly, Geralt and Yennefer won’t give up Ciri without a fight. And, after undergoing all that training at Kaer Morhen inThe Witcher season 2, Ciri won’t simply let Rience and company take her back to Redania, or the elves to one of their few strongholds.
Take a look at the first graphically violent footage fromThe Witcher’s next season below:
Fans familiar with Andrzek Sapkoswki’s high fantasy book series will immediately recognize the location that Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer (with a little help from Yarpen Zigrin’s traveling dwarf continent) face their foes down in.
For the uninitiated: it’s Shaerraward, an ancient elven palace that’s fallen into disrepair. During the height of the elven empire, however, it was ruled by the family of infamous elf Aelirenn, who led the elves' final (and unsuccessful) last fight against the encroaching humans in the 1060s. Remember, humans only arrived on The Continent when the Conjunction of the Spheres, a cataclysmic event that affected the multiverse and trapped humans and monsters in this realm, which was brought to life inThe Witcher: Blood Originminiseries on Netflix in December 2022.
The Witcher’s second season, which was based on the first of Sapkowski’s novels – ‘Blood of Elves’ –didn’tcover Aelirenn’s backstory (otherwise known as the roses of Aelirenn). The forthcoming season, then, will include that vital storyline to reveal more about Ciri’s heritage, which casualWitcherfans will need to know more about moving forward.
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Regardless, viewers can look forward to more in the way of bloodthirsty and magical battles inThe Witcher’s next outing. If they’re all as well choreographed as the footage above, we’ll be in for a real treat when season 3 part 1 debuts on Netflix on June 29. Why only part 1? BecauseThe Witcherseason 3 is being split into two parts, with the second batch of episodes landing a month later on July 27.
You better make the most of its eight episodes, too, as this is the final time we’ll see Henry Cavill portray Geralt of Rivia in one of thebest Netflix shows. As we reported in October 2022,Cavill won’t be back forThe Witcherseason 4for as-yet-revealed reasons. He’s being replaced by Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games), and showrunner Lauren Hissrich has already said she"fully understands" why fans are concerned about Cavill’s impending departure.
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And, if you’re looking for more Tudum 2023-based news, check out our story on3 Body Problem, a new mind-bending sci-fi series from those behindGame of Thrones' TV adaptation.
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