'The Witcher' Fans Spot Hilarious Geralt Detail

Netflix's The Witcher is a grim, epic tale about a super-human warrior and his complicated [...]

By Michael Hein

Netflix's The Witcher is a grim, epic tale about a super-human warrior and his complicated relationship with the world he has sworn to defend, but it has its moments of levity as well. This week, fans are focused on one of their favorite little features in the series: Geralt's "smiling" sword. As people on social media have pointed out before, the hilt appears to be grinning over Geralt's shoulder even when he himself is wearing a scowl.

Henry Cavill plays Geralt of Rivia in the Netflix original series The Witcher. Unlike other fantasy epics, Geralt does not have a magical sword with an auspicious name, though there is actually an explanation behind the blade's "smile." Geralt acquires the trinket on his hilt in the first episode of the series, taking it from former princess Renfri of Creyden after she is killed. As the timeline progresses, the trinket shows that Geralt is still carrying her memory with him.

That has not stopped droves of fans from laughing at the "smile" when they notice it, however. Social media is full of jokes comparing Geralt's dour expression to his sword's apparent grin, but detail-oriented viewers have spotted its real origin before.

The creators of The Witcher went to great lengths to show how hard they worked in Making the Witcher and The Witcher: Inside the Episodes, which were released on Netflix after the series itself. Given the level of detail in these featurettes, there's no way the producers would have added an erroneous smiling sword by mistake.

It will be interesting to see if the smile remains on Geralt's sword in The Witcher Season 2, which is currently filming in the U.K. Production on the acclaimed series was slowed by the coronavirus pandemic — particularly when new cast member Kristofer Hivjy contracted COVID-19 on set. Thankfully, the cast and crew are now able to get back to work safely.

Netflix is also producing two spin-offs simultaneously — The Witcher: Blood Origins and The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. The latter is an animated feature centering around Geralt's mentor, Vesemir. Taking place a few years before Geralt's birth, the movie will reportedly be made in an anime-like style.

Meanwhile, Blood Origins takes place much earlier — 1,200 years before the events of the main series. It will reportedly tell the story of the formation of the Witchers themselves, and perhaps explain the existence of monster and magic in this fictional world a bit more.

So far, Netflix has not set an official release date for either of these spin-offs, but it has promised The Witcher Season 2 some time in 2021. The first season and the two making-of documentaries about it are streaming now on Netflix.

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