'The Witcher's Kristofer Hivju Breaks Down Episode 1's Conflicted Monster, Nivellen

At long last, The Witcher is back for its second season. And if you loved Game of Thrones, it’s starting with a familiar face as well as a familiar format for this universe. The Witcher Season 2, Episode 1 spoilers ahead. 

Though The Witcher Season 2 is based on Blood of Elves, the first major novel in author Andrzej Sapkowski’s saga, its first episode feels more like a throwback. “A Grain of Truth” covers one of the only short stories not mentioned in Season 1’s inspiration, Sword of Destiny. Nivellen’s tale of curses and guilt serves as a concise examination of one of The Witcher‘s greatest themes, and Decider spoke with the star of this episode and Game of Thrones alum Kristofer Hivju about what it was like portraying one of the most complex monsters in this monstrosity-filled series.

“I loved that the episode was like a movie in the movie kind of, or a movie in the series. So it’s a short story as in the books, but it’s also a short story in the story,” Hivju said. “It’s this hiding. He’s ashamed and he’s trying to keep the secret from himself. But I loved the whole arc of the story, how he has to face it.”

In the series, Geralt (Henry Cavill) and Ciri (Freya Allan) stumble upon the mansion of one of Geralt’s old friends, Nivellen (Hivju). Sometime after Geralt last saw him, Nivellen had been cursed to live as a beast. The reunion initially seems like a sweet one. At least that’s the case until Geralt and Ciri become aware of Vereena (Agnes Born), a mysterious woman living with Nivellen. As the episode progresses, it becomes apparent that Vereena is actually a super-powered vampire known as a bruxa. But Nivellen once again emerges as this story’s beast. It’s thenrevealed that the reason he was cursed was because he raped a young priestess. The episode asks who the real monster is: a creature no one understands or a man bound by his past sins?

That question is one that defines The Witcher altogether. Repeatedly, Geralt faces the same basic truth, which is that the creatures he’s paid to hunt are rarely as monstrous as the people responsible for his paycheck. But that’s not the only reason why “A Grain of Truth” stands as a pinnacle of everything The Witcher has to offer. No, it also contains some seriously badass fight scenes, primarily between Geralt and Nivellen.

“It’s all technical, you know, because the monsters are placed in afterwards, right? But we had some fun and also some great stuntmen working around everything,” Hivju said. It’s unlikely that Nivellen will appear again in The Witcher. After Sword of Destiny, he’s never seen again in the novels. But as far as one-and-done stories go, it’s a pretty great one.

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