author: Bart Swiatek
The Witcher (Netflix): See How Kikimora Battle Scene was Created
On YouTube, there was a film showing the process of creating choreography for the first fight in The Witcher series - a fight with a monstrous Kikimora.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- A video showing the backstage of the kikimora fight in The Witcher appeared online;
- The biggest challenge was to create a choreography that would realistically reflect a battle with an inhuman opponent.
Netflix has published an interesting material, which shows the backstage of the first scene of the series - Geralt's fight with a monster called kikimora. The video lasts a little more than two minutes and is accompanied by commentary by several people, including Vladimir Furdik, an actor and melee weapons expert, who played the role of Night King in Game of Thrones and was responsible for combat choreography in The Witcher.
Kikimora - a monstrous challenge
As Vladimir Furdik describes, the main problem with planning this scene was that Geralt's opponent was not a human, but an arachnid monster. The kikimora, which resembles a mutated spider, is a creature that is actually hard to imagine, let alone build a complicated choreography around it.
Furdik found an interesting way to deal with this challenge - four people holding metal pipes connected by adhesive tape, which looked roughly like spider's legs, were placed on the table. Thanks to this, Vladimir Furdik could visualize the threat from the monster and react properly to its attacks.
"They [pipes - editorial note] looked like spider legs. They moved them, and I started thinking and build the fight, " describes the choreographer.
Interestingly, there are so many small movements and details in this scene that to see them all, it is necessary to watch it in slow motion.
Key issue - Geralt's character and skills
The key issue was also to reflect the character and skills of the protagonist - Geralt of Rivia. The witcher had to be a person who can sense the opponent, properly assess the situation during the battle, and keep his cool even when not everything goes according to the plan. All this should be visible in the way he fights.
"I thought he should be a fighter who can predict three seconds in advance before he goes to kill someone else," Furdik says.
It is worth noting, that The Witcher debuted on Netflix in December, last year. The series features Henry Cavill (Geralt of Rivia), Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) and Freya Allan (Ciri). The title is an adaptation of the prose of a well-known Polish fantasy writer - Andrzej Sapkowski.