The stars of The Witcher: Blood Origin, a new prequel series coming to Netflix, have opened up about the show’s bloody, hammer-clobbering action scenes.
When Henry Cavill made his debut as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s The Witcher, viewers were enraptured by one scene in particular: the Blaviken fight, where Geralt rips a sword through a man’s mouth, and more.
Fans have come to expect a certain level of bloodshed from the franchise, and while The Witcher: Blood Origin takes place thousands of years before the flagship show, it comes equipped with its own brand of violence.
Whether it’s Michelle Yeoh schooling two rookies in the art of swordsmanship, or a woman clearing an entire building with her trusty hammer, the stars clearly have a knack for action. “The more blood, the better,” they say.
The Witcher Blood Origin stars on “tough” action
The Witcher: Blood Origin follows the efforts of seven strangers in the Elven golden era who fought together before the “conjunction of the spheres”, when the worlds of humans, elves, and monsters became one, and the first Witcher was created.
These people are Fjall of Dog Clan (Laurence O’Fuarain), Scian of Ghost Tribe (Michelle Yeoh), Brother Death (Huw Novelli), the mages Zacharé (Lizzie Annis) and Syndril (Zach Wyatt), Meldof (Francesca Mills) and her hammer Gwen, and Éile the Lark (Sophia Brown).
Dexerto sat down with the cast ahead of the show’s release this Christmas, and asked them to talk about their experiences filming the many bloody action scenes across the four episodes.
Mills, who gets one of the best introductions in the show, said: “I loved it! I wanted more blood. The more blood the better.
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“When we’re first introduced to Meldof and she goes knocking on that door and comes out of the house and like… the flames lighting the blood on her face and she’s got Gwen and she’s doing this power walk. That was a great day on set and I just loved learning the fights and watching everyone else fight, watching Michelle Yeoh fight.
Novelli, whose character is armed with some formidable cleavers, added: “Oh my days, when I looked in the script and I saw that we had a fight scene with Michelle Yeoh… you couldn’t have wiped the grin off my face. You know, to just sit there and watch a legend at work in Michelle Yeoh is just a pleasure, an absolute pleasure.”
O’Fuarain spoke about the training process for these scenes, which was “long and tough”, but it helped the cast bond both on and off the screen, allowing them to “find” who they were along the way.
“The days were long and tough, but they brought us over about a couple of months before the actual cameras went up, and they went through the choreography and we went through the stunt training and rehearsals with the stunt coordination,” he said.
“Yeah, I think we found our characters through that process and we were able to really bond through and play off each other.”
There are other more gruelling moments in Blood Origin, but you’ll need to wait until Christmas to find out more.
The Witcher: Blood Origin hits Netflix on December 25. Find out more here.
