Spoilers for Season 4 of The Witcher are ahead!
As those with a Netflix subscription who watch The Witcher know, the Continent is an incredibly harsh land. Not only do wars, both man-made and magical, continue to rage across its many cities, but there are literally terrifying monsters lurking in nearly every locale, from village to forest and desert to sea. The populace is hardly incapable of experiencing joy, however, and one thing that relieves some tension is the songs of a certain bard: Jaskier. In fact, The Witcher Season 4 (which recently hit the 2025 TV schedule) delivered our first-ever singing/dancing musical sequence for Joey Batey’s character, and I was shocked to find out just how “exhausting” it all was to film.
What Did Joey Batey Say About Filming Jaskier’s Musical Number?
There are many things to love about The Witcher, whether it’s the new-found monster fighting skills of Liam Hemsworth during his “noise”-filled inaugural season as Geralt of Rivia (which made him feel like a “school kid” when in costume for the first time), the amazing battle sequences or, oh, I don’t know, pretty much anytime we get to watch Joey Batey’s character sing a song. Geralt’s ever-funny friend Jaskier has had plenty of standout moments over the course of three seasons so far, but I don’t think anyone quite expected that the fourth season would add “full-on musical number” to that list.
Episode 5, “The Joy of Cooking,” saw Geralt and his travelling companions take a break after yet another hard-won fight to rest, recover, and enjoy a meal. This led to everyone sharing some tales from their own histories, and Jaskier’s version launched The Witcher universe into complete Hollywood Technicolor musical mode for about five minutes. When asked about filming the fun scene by CinemaBlend’s Riley Utley recently, the actor had a much different word to describe the process, though. As he said:
I wish I had any other word but exhausting, but it was. It was a long sequence. It was long days, and it was very, very physical.
Awww, man! This is the “magic” of movie-making and starring in a TV show, I suppose. It looks like it would have been a blast to film, but there were so many moving parts as compared to things like Batey’s performances of “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” (which got stuck in everyone’s head) and the Season 2 banger “Burn, Butcher, Burn” that it didn’t exactly amount to a normal day of filming. Just look at the first part of the scene:
There’s so much…twirling. Potentially too much for a regular, non-bard person. He explained further:
But with the musical team around me, with our choreographer, Shelly, and with all the SAs and extras and dancers around us, it became a very -- we became quite military. We all were like bolstering each other and keeping each other going. And I, at one point, a dancer whose name I didn't even know at the time, came over and was like, 'Here's a protein bar. I think you need it.'
OK, this really sounds rough. Can you imagine being in the middle of your job and someone you don’t even really know feeling like they need to take pity on you and offer sustenance? I mean, don’t get me wrong; I would love it. But I’m a writer who sits at a computer all day and works from home, so it would be at least a teensy bit odd. Anyway…
Even though it wasn’t party time on set while the cast and crew worked on the complex sequence, it turns out that the impulse to bolster others during the process helped everyone come together (sounds like trauma bonding, but any bonding is good bonding…I guess) to keep the environment on set as light and happy as possible while everyone worked their asses off. As Batey noted:
And it was just a very, very joyous set on what was a very arduous sequence to shoot.
That’s good at least. Now, honestly, I cannot wait to see how they top this musical performance in Season 5!
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
