Do you know that viral video going around of how every meeting starts in 2019? That's basically what The Witcher did to Game Of Thrones. The new Netflix series just got its first trailer and it is so eerily similar to GoT that I'm all but certain they shared the same set. There's sword-fighting, horses, armies running at each other, fire, snow, and orgies — pretty much all the things that make up Game Of Thrones' DNA. However, this fantasy series leans a lot harder into the world of magic and stars Henry Cavill, which is always a bonus.
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Cavill, who stars as a monster hunter named Geralt of Rivia, is joined by Freya Allan as princess Ciri and Anya Chalotra as a sorceress named Yennefer. They are all orphans bound by "destiny," as showrunner Lauren Schmidt told Variety. She also gave more detail about the show's non-Game Of Thrones-y elements.
"We are diving into the mystical a lot more. There’s magic and there’s monsters," she explained, later adding, "One of the things that we built in is: What is the cost of magic? If you’re going to practice magic you’re going to lose something as well….It forces our characters into places where they have to use their brains a lot more than sort of relying on magical tools."
As for the trailer, it's less a glimpse of the series than it is an onslaught of medieval-like imagery and special effects. Monster-hunter Cavill, who himself comes with his own kind of magic, spends most of the trailer fighting monsters as well as people's perceptions of him.
"People call you a monster too," a character says to Cavill. "Why not kill them?"
"'Cause then I am what they say I am," he replies.
Watch the full trailer for The Witcher, which lands on Netflix on December 20, below.