Rience's Final Witcher Season 3 Scene Looked A Lot Sillier Behind The Scenes
Whether you love Netflix's take on "The Witcher" or just love to hate it, there's no denying that this season's major battle episode was pretty epic. In episode six of season 3, the coup at Aretuza quickly transformed into an all-out fight, with bodies exploding and a ring of fire raining down upon both sides — not to mention a final confrontation that left our titular witcher in bad shape. In the midst of all the chaos, though, the show makes time for a brief, effortlessly cool moment: the death of Rience (Sam Woolf).
Rience was been positioned as a shadowy, dangerous schemer since day one. He was a fire mage with a stereotypical villain scar on his face who spent much of the series hot on Ciri's (Freya Allan) trail. But when he finally got the chance to face off against her, it was a short-lived moment that was cut unceremoniously short — as was Rience himself when Geralt (Henry Cavill) chopped off his head. The scene in question is delightfully anticlimactic on purpose: the sort of sudden KO that serves to show how high the stakes have gotten, how easily someone can be swiped off the chessboard, and, of course, how cool Geralt and Yennefer are.
'Oh, that was embarrassing'
The scene is also visually dynamic. In it, Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) tells Rience she's about to set down her sword, but instead she sends it flying through the air, where Geralt, suddenly appearing, catches it and slices Rience's head from his body without a word. The power move is punctuated by its almost darkly funny aftermath, in which the group doesn't even properly process the moment, but instead moves on to talking about another, more important villain.
In an interview with Vulture, Chalotra was asked about performing the sword trick in the scene, and she revealed that, while she does love doing stunts for the show, it was actually pretty uncool-looking in person. "I throw it, it lands on the floor," she tells the outlet. "Thank goodness the camera turns away from my face, because I'm like, 'Oh, that was embarrassing.' And then someone throws it to Henry fast, and fortunately, it looks cool."
To be fair to Chalotra, it would've probably been impossible to throw a sword in a perfectly straight line past Woolf and Allan. Plus, the final shot ends up employing a classic slo-mo trick that doesn't seem like it could've been easily achieved with practical effects.
The Witcher's stunts are always a major highlight
"I do have to trust a lot of people, because in that moment, when I go [pantomimes throwing it], and it just falls flat on the floor, there's nothing worse," Chalotra points out. "There's nothing more humiliating. And my face is so determined!" Luckily, the stunt team and special effects crew didn't let her down, and the sword throw looks pretty great in the finished product. Even better is the following shot, in which we see Rience's head and body fall in two different directions as Geralt casually walks away.
Chalotra may not have been able to show off her stunt work in this scene, but she's definitely made a habit of performing stunts herself. "I love stunt work," she tells Vulture. "I love working with my body to make something. I've always wanted to do more of it." In the new season, Chalotra helped the stunt team design Indian dance-inspired choreography for scenes involving Yen's magic. "This season, we were more specific because we wanted to bring Yennefer's magic to life a bit more, and I basically just wanted to hang out with the stunt department," Chalotra says. She also gives props specifically to supervising stunt coordinator Wolfgang Stegemann, whom she calls Wolfy. "[He] is just adored," she shares. "This season wouldn't be the same without him."
In addition to the actors and director, it sounds like we might have Wolfy to thank for Rience's thrilling downfall. Chalotra is right about the new season's stunt work, too: while it's tough to imagine what "The Witcher" might look like when it returns with Liam Hemsworth in the lead role, the show has delivered consistently great action sequences and that doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon.
"The Witcher" season 3 is now on Netflix.