Behind the scenes: The Witcher

When Game of Thrones reached its finale in 2019, it opened up a gap in the market for a new fantasy epic. Enter The Witcher which landed on Netflix in December.

The Witcher, like Game of Thrones, comes to our screens with a pre-installed fanbase, established through the Andrzej Sapkowski books it is based on, and the series of video games of the same name.

Set in a fantastical world where Geralt of Rivia - the titular Witcher, played by Henry Cavill - uses swords and sorcery to hunt monsters, the producers turned to London-based VFX company Framestore for 320 VFX shots.

Across the eight episodes, that is almost the equivalent of a Marvel movie delivered in under a year. Alongside Framestore, other work was delivered by Cinesite and Platige Image, which also completed VFX work on the Witcher video games.

One thing is clear is the different approaches taken by the producers between shows like Game of Thrones and The Witcher Looking back at the first season of Game of Thrones, the FX budget is clearly not on the same scale as that of the first season of The Witcher.

“The budget is just season one so it’s good to grow in terms of scale as well,” explains executive producer, television and advertising Chris Gray of…