The Witcher star Freya Allan talks online trolls and why Henry Cavill would be a ‘sick’ James Bond

Freya Allan and Anya Chalotra tell how they dealt with the spotlight of a Netflix fantasy hit and what to expect next.

Freya Allan and Henry Cavill in a scene from Season 2 of The Witcher on Netflix.

Freya Allan knows all too well just how passionate the fans of The Witcher can be.

The fantasy drama – starring Henry Cavill in the monster-slaying title role – is based on the Polish book series of the same name, which has sold more than 15 million copies and been translated in to 37 languages.

The spin-off video games trilogy was even more popular, selling more than 50 million copies worldwide.

So, when word got out that Netflix was making a big-budget TV adaptation, which would become one of the streaming platform’s biggest hits, the diehard Witcher freaks unsurprisingly had thoughts.

In the lead-up to this month’s eagerly anticipated second season, English actor Allan, who plays Princess Cirilla (Ciri), admits she couldn’t help but look online to see how those fans were travelling, despite her better instincts.

“I do sometimes have a little peek at Reddit,” she admits with a laugh. “Because I find it quite funny seeing how passionate everybody is. Sometimes it’s best not to look – sometimes you’re not the most popular person at the time and they are savaging you to death and you’re like, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll just leave this place now’.”

Freya Allan as Ciri in a scene from Season 2 of The Witcher.

Fellow Brit Anya Chalotra was initially so startled by the vitriolic reaction from some corners of the internet to her casting as Yennefer, a mage and sometime love interest of Cavill’s Geralt of Rivia, that she took herself off social media altogether.

But she says the confidence she gained from playing the powerful sorceress in the first season – not to mention the positive reaction once fans actually saw The Witcher – helped her reset her attitude.

“I think I befriended it a lot more,” Chalotra says of the online scrutiny and profile that the success of The Witcher brought her. “I realised that Instagram was in my control and to look at the positive and that’s something that’s really important.

“It’s given me a confidence that I don’t think I would have ever been able to have if I hadn’t had The Witcher and played Yennefer for so long already. Having that many people watch you on screen on one of your first ever adventures on camera makes you realise that you can do anything.”

Chalotra says that despite Covid disruptions to production, she and her castmates were able to hit the ground running with season two of The Witcher. Whereas the first season had to do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of building the complex world of warring kingdoms, magic and monsters, as well as having two separate (and slightly confusing) time lines, the new episodes pick up right after the cliffhanger ending of the finale and continue in a simpler, more linear story from there.

Anya Chalotra as the mage Yennefer in season two of The Witcher.

“We’ve established all the characters in the first season so in season two, you can fully sit in that security of knowing the rules and regulations of the Witcher world and just go on an epic journey,” she says.

Yennefer finished the last season by “unleashing her chaos” but the powerful magic that helped her defeat her enemies may have come at a cost, says Chalotra.

“She’s a survivor of war after the first season,” Chalotra says. “And we meet her as a very changed woman. And I’m excited for the audience to see how after surviving war she reconnects with herself reconnects with her confidence.

“Every character is scared of what they’re capable of in The Witcher. I think everyone’s on a journey of self-discovery.”

Whereas Allan spent much of the first season with Ciri either surrounded by protectors in a castle or fleeing from her enemies, she relished the chance not to be such a damsel in distress.

Freya Allan and Henry Cavill have formed a close bond on The Witcher.

The finale finally united Ciri with her long-promised protector Geralt, who then takes her to the Witcher stronghold of Kaer Mohan in the new season.

Having met his creature-killing comrades, Ciri decides she wants to learn the ancient art herself, which meant hours of gym work and weapons training for Allan. She proved to be a natural.

“About a month before filming, I started going to the stunt department learning the basic sword work and doing all these physical things as well just get my body a bit more used to being that physical,” Allan says.

“And I remember the stunt co-ordinator was like, ‘You might as well stay the night here, Freya’. I was like Siri, I just was addicted to training and wanting to come as best as I could.”

The Witcher streams on Netflix from December 17.

Henry Cavill at the World Premiere of The Witcher: Season 2 in London this month. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

A COMMON BOND

Since Daniel Craig announced his retirement as James Bond, Henry Cavill has long been mentioned in dispatches as a possible successor as 007.

And his co-star in the Netflix fantasy drama The Witcher, Freya Allan, for one, thinks it would be damn fine idea, especially if she gets to go along for the ride.

“I think it would just be sick if he was Bond,” Allan enthuses.

“I mean, how insane would that be? I would be very jealous because one of my dreams is one day I would love to get to be a Bond girl. I just think that those movies are sick. I think I’d be hyped for him if he got Bond.”

Allan says Cavill “is like a big brother to me” doesn’t worry about the possibility of losing him from The Witcher should he be called up to Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

“I don’t know if that’s possible to lose him from The Witcher because he is The Witcher,” she says. “I feel like if he was Bond, it’s only going to help the Witcher.”

Originally published as The Witcher star Freya Allan talks online trolls and why Henry Cavill would be a ‘sick’ James Bond