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‘The Witcher’: This Moment From Episode 1 Hinted at the Show’s Different Timelines

At the end of the first season of Netflix's The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), and Princess Cirilla (Freya Allen) are all in each other's orbit. Several episodes earlier, most viewers probably realized that the show had different timelines.
by Trey Mangum
Published on
2 min read

At the end of the first season of Netflix’s The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), and Princess Cirilla (Freya Allen) are all in each other’s orbit.

Several episodes earlier, most viewers probably realized that the show had different timelines. But if you were paying attention, these many time jumps were first alluded to in the pilot episode.

'The Witcher' cast
(L-R) Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, and Anya Chalotra attend the photocall for Netflix’s “The Witcher” season 1 at the Egyptian Theatre on December 03, 2019 in Hollywood, California | Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

What happened at the end of ‘The Witcher’ season 1?

The end of the first season saw the stories of our three central characters finally come together after they were far from each other most of the season. For much of season 1, Geralt was on his adventures, looking to find his “destiny,” Ciri.

On a slightly earlier timeline, Yennefer gets sold and goes through her training. At some point, she intersects into Geralt’s adventure storyline as they strike up an on-and-off, love-hate relationship.

Ciri’s story takes place about 70-100 years after the origin stories of Geralt and Yennefer as Cintra falls, her grandmother dies, and she goes in search of Geralt.

All three of their stories are now together once Geralt and Ciri finally find each other. As she had been sensing he has been looking for her, Ciri asks Geralt, “Who is Yennefer?” linking all of them once and for all.

You may have missed this critical moment

For most viewers, it will take a while to realize that the first season of the show is operating on multiple timelines and almost every transition between scenes is a time jump.

Series creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich said the timeline was modeled after the Christopher Nolan war film, Dunkirk. Many won’t truly realize the different spaces that The Witcher is operating on until about the third episode.

When you first think about it, you may think that the show doesn’t want you to know about all the timelines until later on. But that’s hard to believe once you understand that everything was laid out for you from the start. In the episode, Ciri tells her grandmother, Queen Calanthe (Jodhi May), that she won her first battle when she was her age. This means the Calanthe has been ruing for years and years.

In the same episode, during Geralt’s portion of the pilot, Renfri (Emma Appleton) tells Geralt that Calanthe just won her first battle. So the events in Geralt’s story when he is in Blaviken is at least around 30 years before Ciri’s story near the fall of Cintra.

When will ‘The Witcher’ season 2 premiere?

If you are worried if the show will return, have no fear. The Witcher got an early second season renewal before the series even premiered.

“I’m so thrilled that before fans have even seen our first season, we are able to confirm that we’ll be returning to The Continent again to continue telling the stories of Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri,” said Hissrich in a statement at the time.

But if you want to see the new season this year, you’re out of luck. The new season won’t go into production until 2020 and will debut in 2021.

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