CD Projekt REDWhile we still wait for an actual trailer, picture, or anything official at all relating to the upcoming Netflix adaption of The Witcher, some leaked footage has surfaced online that’s got fans all worked up.
Okay, so it’s not that difficult to get fans of any franchise worked up when it comes to live-action adaptations (see: Robert Pattinson as Batman for the most recent example), I have to admit that the images coming from the set of The Witcher don’t exactly fill me with confidence, either.
The leaked footage comes via fan website Redanian Intelligence, which gives us a first look at the armour of the Nilfgaardian troops. You can check it out for yourself below. It is… not great.
For comparison, this is what a Nilfgaardian solider looks like in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
CD Projekt REDObviously, expecting everything in the Netflix adaption to look exactly as it does in The Witcher 3 would be madness, and the people behind the show have every right to leave their own mark on the world and characters.
The main issue with the leaked armour of course, isn’t necessarily that it looks different from the game armour – that’s fine. The issue for most is just that it straight up doesn’t look very good. Like, at all.
A lot of the comments on the above YouTube clip and ResetEra have not been kind to the armour’s design. Many have called out the strange, wrinkly look of the suits, as well a lack of detail (aside from the aforementioned wrinkles).
Criticisms have included “homemade hockey gear”, “generic Mordor”, and “costumes from a dollar store.” One imaginative user referred to the Nilfgaardians as “ballsacks with swords”, which…. well, it isn’t entirely unfair as far as observations go.
CD Projekt REDOf course, it’s incredibly important to note that this is raw footage, and we have no idea what the studio intends to do with the armour in post production, which the show is said to be entering very soon as filming winds down.
The Witcher will star Superman actor Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, alongside Freya Allan (Into The Badlands) and Anya Chalotra (Wanderlust) as Geralt’s adopted daughter Ciri and powerful sorceress/occasional love interest Yennefer respectively.
Lauren Schmidt Hissrich is serving as showrunner on the show, which will reportedly run for eight episodes. Hissrich previously confirmed that the show would take more from the original novels than the popular video game franchise, and that she’s keen to stay true to the “Slavic roots” of the books.
CD Projekt REDI’m not sure how true to the books these wrinkled suits of armour are, but given The Witcher is expected to debut on Netlix towards the end of this year, we should get an official (and hopefully better) look at the show soon.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.