The Witcher season 3 has halted production because of a new Covid-19 outbreak

Netflix says production will resume “as soon as it is safe to do so.”

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Production of the third season of the Netflix seriesThe Witcherhas been paused because of an outbreak of Covid-19, according toThe Hollywood Reporter, which also said that series star Henry Cavill is rumored to have tested positive for the virus.

This will be the third time that The Witcher has been forced to pause filming because of Covid-19. Thefirst pauseoccurred in March 2020 during the relatively early days of the pandemic; that shutdown was initially intended to last just a couple of weeks but ultimately stretched into August when Kristofer Hivju, who portrayed the cursed character Nivellen, tested positive. Thesecond shutdownfollowed just a few months after production resumed, when four people working on the show tested positive.

Global efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, ranging from mask mandates to vaccination campaigns, have largely waned over the past year, but cases are once again surging, driven primarily by the highly contagious BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants. A recentBBC Newsreport said the positivity rate in the UK, where The Witcher series is based, has been rising since the start of June;542 peoplein the country died of the virus during the week ending July 15.

Netflix did not comment on the status of Cavill, but said that production of the series has been “paused due to Covid” and “will be up and running as soon as it is safe to do so.” I’ve reached out to Netflix for more information and will update if I receive a reply.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill.Lotsof Henry Cavill.

Arcane, Riot’s two-season League of Legends animated series, reportedly cost $250 million to make

It looks like the role of Lara Croft in Amazon’s live-action Tomb Raider show is currently a race between Game of Thrones' Sophie Turner and Bohemian Rhapsody’s Lucy Boynton

I desperately hope Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Disco Elysium inspire more RPG devs to reject the traditional drip, drip, drip of DLC and expansions