Did ‘The Witcher’ Just Make a COVID-19 Joke?

It is hard to recall now, but season 1 of The Witcher premiered all the way back in December 2019. Many of us binged the high-fantasy series with a confusing timeline over the holidays, thinking it would be all we were talking about come spring. Of course, our lives changed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. Yet The Witcher still had our backs; a scene where Mousesack celebrated seeing Geralt again by saying “I haven’t seen you since the plague” became a meme. It’s what we would say to friends and family once COVID receded in a few months. Simpler times.

I support safe filming sets where people aren’t worked to the bone, even if that means it will take longer for a new movie or show to come out. But the pandemic played a major part in The Witcher‘s postponed release schedule. The second season of The Witcher was supposed to begin filming in early 2020. With several pandemic-related delays, filming didn’t start until the late summer. Outbreaks among people working on the show caused more delays, and season 2 wasn’t finished until the spring of 2021. It’s been a long road to season 3’s summer 2023 release. The pandemic has hit us in different ways, and The Witcher may have just made a joke about it.

This article contains spoilers for season 3 of The Witcher.

What could be worse than the plague?

Although The Witcher may come off as a serious dramatic show, it has its moments of levity—because sometimes you just have to laugh. The first five episodes of season 3 have a couple of comedic moments. Any time Jaskier is in the mix, we are usually in store for some sarcastic comment or humorous quip. This season, Jaskier has an especially funny moment when he rants about Geralt being similar to a hammer and an old family goat. Jaskier knows his BFF so well.

Plus we saw Yennefer, Ciri, and Geralt having a little bit of fun as a found family living in the woods. They even celebrated Yennefer and Ciri’s birthdays at a Belleteyn, their version of Beltane. I love that they are both May Day babies. It is believed that people born on that day are especially powerful and in tune with magic.

But the funniest part of the season so far comes when Geralt is talking with a werewolf named Otto. While visiting a druid for a potion, Geralt meets Otto. Although he is a werewolf, Otto seems pretty normal. He explains to Geralt that he wears a pendant to keep his bloodthirsty tendencies under control. Geralt asks how he became a werewolf, and Otto says it happened during the “plague of ’21.” To avoid getting sick, Otto ran deep into the woods away from civilization—just like many of us did during the plague of ’21. However, Otto wasn’t expecting to encounter a werewolf, which bit him.

In the before time of 2019, I probably wouldn’t find this as funny as I do now. Between unprecedented heat weaves, flooding, and COVID-19, it only makes sense that lycanthropy would be next. Stay safe out there, folks, you never know what could be around the corner.

(featured image: Netflix)