The Witcher Stunt Coordinator Built His Own Kikimora Out of People and Pipes

A good chunk of Netflix’s The Witcher sees Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) fighting fantastical monsters, many of which are created with computer graphics. But how do you sell Geralt’s fight with large monsters and make it look real? How dou you make it look like the eponymous witcher isn’t just good at what he does, but one of the best, when nobody’s ever really fought something like that before? According to stunt coordinator/choreographer Vladimir Furdik, at least in the case of the first episode’s kikimora, you start off by making one.

Major spoilers for the first season of Netflix’s The Witcher follow. You’ve been warned.

“I just stay in the gym, and I’m thinking, how I can prepare the fight because kikimora, she is three meters tall, and she have eight legs,” Furdik says in the first episode of the recent behind-the-scenes podcast from Netflix about the series. Ultimately, he built one with the help of other folks and long, plastic pipes taped together to create a joint of sorts, mimicking what the kikimora looks like in the show.

“So, I bring six people, I put them on the table [and give them the pipes,] which looks like spider legs, and I just stay under the legs and I start to thinking, start to build the fight,” Furdik says. Then he went about putting together several different versions of the fight with the help of his homemade monstrosity. Ultimately, that’s how they figured it out.

What do you think of Netflix’s The Witcher? How realistic did you find the initial monster fight scene? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!

Here’s how Netflix describes the series:

“Based on the best-selling fantasy series, The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. But when destiny hurtles him toward a powerful sorceress, and a young princess with a dangerous secret, the three must learn to navigate the increasingly volatile Continent together.”

The first eight-episode season of Netflix’s The Witcher is available to stream on the platform now. It has already been renewed for a second season. Lauren S. Hissrich serves as showrunner. It stars Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, and Freya Allan as Ciri. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the latest and greatest adaptation right here.