Production of the third season of the Netflix series The Witcher has been paused because of an outbreak of Covid-19, according to The 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. The first pause occurred 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. The second shutdown followed 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 recent BBC News report said the positivity rate in the UK, where The Witcher series is based, has been rising since the start of June; 542 people in 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.
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