The Witcher Halts Production After Members Of The Crew Test Positive For COVID-19

The Netflix series The Witcher has halted production after four crew members tested positive for COVID-19. The show had already seen a lengthy hiatus in filming due to the global pandemic.

Four different crew members tested positive for the virus on Saturday which means the entire set was compromised. Netflix executed an isolated round of testing for everyone involved in the show’s production shortly after the results came back. As of this writing, no one in the lead cast has been infected and they are all being isolated until further notice. It isn’t known at this time when filming will resume.

The Witcher had just moved from on-location shoots this past week and the show’s star, Henry Cavill, confirmed that production was moving into Arborfield Studios in London, England. This isn’t the first time that the show has to halt production during its season two filming schedule. Back in March, actor Kristofer Hivju, who plays Nivellen, had a COVID-19 test that came back positive. The series took the next six months off and production didn’t resume until mid-August. Everyone working on the show at the time had to abide by the U.K.’s new COVID-19 protocols in order for shooting to get underway. Due to this latest halt in production, the show will at least see a seven-month delay and that throws the season two release date into the question. Season two of The Witcher had been set to return in 2021 but it could get pushed all the way to 2022 at this rate. Netflix did not make it known how many episodes had finished filming before this latest stop in production.

News of The Witcher pausing its production schedule due to COVID-19 comes shortly after it was announced that The CW halted filming on their reboot of Charmed after one crew member tested positive for Coronavirus. Cases of the virus continued to surge over the weekend and it’s becoming increasingly clear that other productions could be forced to temporarily cease production over the next couple of weeks if things continue to escalate. Complicating matters is that we are now headed into the holiday season which means crews may not be called back to work until after the new year.