Henry Cavill Rewrote The Witcher Season 2's Big Death Scene
Warning: major spoilers ahead for The Witcher Season 2
We're once again tossing a coin to our Witcher, as Season 2 of Netflix's The Witcher casts a spell over us all. The leading trio of Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, and Anya Chalotra were all back as Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, but sadly, we had to say goodbye to another fan-favourite.
In a world populated by warring nations and malevolent monsters ready to off you at any time, death is never far away in The Witcher. However, showrunner Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich pulled the rug from underneath us with a shocking demise pulled right from the games. Sadly, this one looks a little more permanent.
Who Died In The Witcher Season 2?
The big talking point has been the tragic demise of Roach - Geralt's loyal horse. Roach was sent off to the glue factory in one of the season's most heartbreaking moments. If you wasn't to know who to blame, it turns out it's Cavill himself.
In once shocking scene, the episode 'Dear Friend...' featured Geralt and Ciri on their way to the Temple of Melitele, but not before they were attacked by the dragon-like chernobog. Although Geralt was able to best the best with some of his Witcher magic, it wasn't before the chernobog dealt Roach a deadly blow. Up there with the death of Shiva the tiger in The Walking Dead, this was a real kicker.
Hissrich told Polygon that there was originally supposed to be an element of comedy in Roach's death, but this didn't sit right with Cavill - leading to the tear-jerking goodbye we eventually got.
"Henry was so unhappy with the line," said Hissrich. "Finally I said, "You know what, you come up with something. I trust you, you know this material so well, you know the book so well, you don’t even have to pitch it to me.' And he came back the next day with a beautiful speech that’s at the end of Sword of Destiny when Geralt is facing death and it’s such a pitch perfect moment."
We can still hear Cavill's raspy voice saying the following: "Enjoy your last walk across the meadow and through the mist. Be not afraid of her for she is your friend."
Why Did The Witcher Kill Roach?
When asked how the show could kill off such an innocent, Hissrich explained, "What I think is amazing is your reaction is so standard for what I’m hearing. We kill people, we kill humans all the time on our show and people are like, 'How could you do that to Roach!?'"
The reason for killing Roach off was apparently due to the fact horses simply don't live as long as humans. "We had already kind of pressed the boundaries of reality there," said Hissrich. "We knew that at some point, Geralt was going to have to get a new Roach. We wanted Roach to die on screen in a very heroic way."
Don't worry though, death isn't the end. The running joke of The Witcher games is that whenever Roach dies, Geralt simply finds a new mare and bestows it the same name. We're technically on about Roach 5000 in CD Projekt Red's series.
Giving hope to the fact another doomed horse is just over the horizon, Hissrich concluded, "There’s going to be a new Roach! It’s still going to be Roach." Hooray, it looks like we won't have to call PETA just yet.
