The Witcher Costume Designer Explains Reasoning Behind Controversial Armor

The Witcher finally hit Netflix last week, and fans seem to be largely receptive to the new [...]

The Witcher finally hit Netflix last week, and fans seem to be largely receptive to the new fantasy show. However, while fans are loving Henry Cavill as Geralt and other facets of the first season, there's also been plenty of criticism lodged at the job Netflix did has done, including the job it did with some of the costume designs. More specifically, there's been plenty of discussion about the Nilfgaardian armor, with most of it being critical.

That said, according to the show's costume designer, Tim Aslam, creating the armor for the large empire was the second most challenging armor set to create, behind only Geralt's armor.

"I think the hardest costume to design was Geralt's costume," said Aslam while speaking to Turkish magazine Episode. "Expectations about Geralt's appearance due to the games were quite high. Also, there was a certain image in the minds of those who read the books about how Geralt should look. The challenge was to design a convincing armor for Geralt. The armor had to give Geralt a tough and dangerous look, but also allow Henry to move freely with his highly structured body and to perform the complex physical movements required by the series. I've been forced to keep this balance."

Aslam continued, getting into the Nilfgaardian armor:

"After Geralt, I think the most challenging armor is the Nilfgaardian armor. It was supposed to be threatening and strange. This armor is actually described as a black armor with a sun motif on it. It would have been easy to turn it into any medieval or Renaissance armor. But I thought it would not be enough to express the dark and scary power of the Nilfgaardian army."

Now, if you watched the show, you'll know Aslam and the costume team did an incredible job. There's some shortcomings here and there -- the Nilfgaardian armor, for example -- but by and large there's not much to complain about. In fact, there's a nice slab of really good designs.

The Witcher Season One is currently available to stream on Netflix. At the moment of publishing, Season 2 is currently in pre-production.

For more news, rumors, leaks, media, and information on The Witcher, be sure to peep all of our previous and extensive coverage of the show by clicking right here. Meanwhile, as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there.

0comments