The Witcher season 2 review: Henry Cavill’s monster killer becomes a protective father figure in Netflix series

The article contains mild spoilers.

Henry Cavill is your new fantasy daddy.

The former Superman continues his quest, warming folks’ hearts as stoic monster hunter Geralt of Rivia in the second eight-episode season of Netflix’s The Witcher series.

The show found a following as a witty and gory B-movie sword-and-sorcery adventure based on the Andrzej Sapkowski novels – more Xena: Warrior Princess than Game of Thrones, with one heck of an infectious bard tune (Toss a Coin to Your Witcher).

The first Witcher season, set in a fantasy landscape called the Continent, followed three main characters – Geralt, mysteriously magical Princess Ciri (Freya Allan) and powerful sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) – through separate, intertwining non-linear timelines.

They coalesced in the season finale as Geralt, tied by destiny to Ciri, finally meets this young girl with the power of foresight, and Yennefer, Geralt’s quarter-elf love interest caught in the middle of a war, disappears after wiping out an army using flame magic (which is quite the no-no).

The Witcher season 2, new Netflix anime, game DLC revealed at WitcherCon

Later, Geralt and teenage Ciri travel the land with his faithful steed Roach, running into old friends and finding sanctuary in the Witchers’ mountainous keep. After losing her entire family and kingdom in Cintra, Ciri seeks to find her way and understand her abilities. But she’s pursued by several forces, so Geralt juggles keeping her safe on multiple levels while also dealing with an uptick in new deadly monsters.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Continent is in a time of political tumult. Elves, driven from their land by the Northern Kingdoms, fall in with the aggressive Nilfgaardian Empire from the south.

Yennefer turns up and is torn between various sides of the conflict, reuniting with fellow spellcaster Fringilla (Mimi Ndiweni) and finding an uneasy alliance with on-the-run Nilfgaardian army commander Cahir (Eamon Farren).

The shift to everyone being in the same time and space eliminates a lot of exposition, as we know the main Witcher personalities now, and the series builds out its mythology as more of a usual fantasy show: everything’s played a lot straighter, and it’s missing the hot-blooded camp quality the series initially embraced.

The show at its core is still pretty enjoyable for a dark fantasy, and the reappearance of rock-star tunesmith Jaskier (Joey Batey), plus new characters like the flame-conjuring rogue mage Rience (Chris Fulton), help in that regard.

Yennefer, a hunchbacked girl turned into a sexy witch in return for giving up the ability to conceive, was by far the most interesting personality of the first season, though she takes a back seat in the second. (Her role in the narrative gradually builds back up over the course of the first six episodes).

Instead, the focus is more on Ciri’s journey: there’s a familiar coming-of-age element, but Allan shines as a youngster trying to figure out her own agency against her prophesied destiny, all while surrounded by large winged bat-monsters, cursed boar dudes and other weirdness.

Of course, Geralt is a magnet for various odd creatures, and Cavill is top notch when slicing and dicing various things and people. It’s the quieter moments, however, like when Geralt’s having a heart-to-heart dad chat with Ciri, that the actor gets to showcase the beating heart of a guy who’s not supposed to have a human side.

With an onslaught of fantasy fare vying to be the next Game of Thrones, from The Wheel of Time to the anticipated Lord of the Rings series, toss a coin to Cavill for keeping it real.