The trailer for Season 2 of The Witcher has arrived, and as anticipated, it contains a number of Easter eggs, monsters and other supernatural creatures slated to appear. Season 2 takes most of its inspiration from Blood of Elves, the second novel in the series, along with elements from the various Witcher video games.
Many of the monsters in the trailers have specific names and roles in the story, giving viewers some idea of what Geralt of Rivia and his companions will face in the upcoming season. Like many trailers it seems to reveal more than it actually does, displaying different cuts of what appear to be the same monster in an effort to enhance the epic nature of the show. The trailer reveals four specific monsters, each with a name and history covered by previous works in the franchise. A short list of each follows, presented in their order of appearance in the trailer.
Nivellen Provides Some Backstory with Geralt
Nivellen appears early in the trailer, discussing the end of the world with Geralt and providing some backstory. He’s not strictly a monster, as indicated by his friendly attitude towards Geralt and vice versa, but rather a human being who’s fallen under a curse. His bestial head is covered with fur and he sports tusks on either side of his mouth.
Nivellen first appeared in the original Witcher novel, The Last Witch, leading a band of robbers who raided a secret temple and raped its priestess. As revenge, she cursed him to become “a monster in a monster’s skin.” His subsequent isolation and loneliness taught him some humility, and Geralt knows he is not a true monster, because he can handle silver utensils without harm. He does, however, have close links to some of the other monsters in the trailer.
Vereena the Bruxa Fights Geralt With a Monstrous Scream
Vereena is the latest of Nivellen’s periodic companions; girls whose families he pays in exchange for keeping him company for a period of time. Both Nivellen and Geralt initially believe her to be a rusalka, a benevolent forest nymph. In fact, she’s a bruxa, a kind of vampire who intends to enslave Nivellen and use his house as the base of her hunting grounds.
Vereena’s most prominent appearance in the trailer shows her as a woman in white attacking Geralt in the middle of a graveyard with a monstrous scream. She also appears as a giant, winged, bat-like creature flying towards Geralt in the same graveyard, and an early shot of a similar creature in the sky high above Geralt is presumably her as well.
Does the Monster House Suggest the Presence of the Crones?
The monster house appears at about the midway point in the trailer and comes as a bit of a surprise to Witcher fans. As Istredd and others look on, a hut with glowing windows appears to come to life and turn towards them.
The creature’s exact nature is unknown, but it appears to be an Easter egg suggesting the presence of the Crones, a large part of the video game The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. Its exact abilities in the Netflix series have yet to be seen as well, but the Crones drew heavily from Baba Yaga, a witch in Eastern European folklore who often traveled in a hut on giant fowl’s legs. The brief image in the trailer is an obvious visual nod.
The Leshen Is Terrifying in the Witcher Season 2 Trailer
The trailer’s showstopper is a leshen, a monstrous forest spirit that resembles the base of a tree with vine-like tendrils exploding up through the nearby ground. Like the Crones, they appear in Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.
They use their powers to hunt through stealth and cunning, running their tendrils beneath the ground to explode upwards around potential victims. They also possess the ability to control plants and animals in the forest around them, and some leshen are worshipped as gods by the local populace. It is unclear what role this specimen will play in the series beyond being a considerable physical challenge to Geralt and his companions.
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