Henry Cavill’s Geralt of Rivia possesses super-human reflexes in The Witcher, but if there’s one thing he’s learned from years of hunting down monstrosities of all shapes and sizes, it’s that donning a sturdy armor is just as important as downing lethal potions and always keeping your silver sword sharp.
Canonically, that’s why Geralt wears a heavily-plated armor in his outings, even though he could take on a dozen fully armed men twice his size and kill them all in the time it takes the normal human soldier to unsheathe their weapon.
Coming up with the design for that new armor in season two has been an extremely collaborative process. As costume designer Lucinda Wright explains it, per Variety, Cavill himself actually had a huge influence on the final design.
“I love working with leather, and with Henry’s armor, it gives such a great texture,” She said. “When I first met Henry – and he loves Geralt, one of the first things we did was sit down and he told me what worked and what didn’t. Henry has these amazing shoulders, so it was about embellishing that and following his silhouette. It was to make him look threatening but also agile. I also wanted to keep the silver-studded look from one carrying it through. We worked for months on it actually to get it right. It really rewarding seeing him in it and knowing he was happy.”
Further detailing what makes this armor better than its season one counterpart, Wright added:
“The outfit was very light. It was made by Robert Allsopp who works with me in the costume department. One thing we did do was to put the sword on the back because, in season one, it was cluttering him. We changed the scabbard so he could put his arm out to touch it. We made that costume easy for him to get out of. There was one buckle on the side, he could be out and gone, and that’s why I introduced buckles.”
The crew of The Witcher is currently busy shooting the third season, expected to air on Netflix sometime in 2023.