The Witcher season 3 features some of the show’s most breathtaking sects yet, including Ciri’s journey across the Korath Desert. During the season’s penultimate episode, “Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan,” Ciri finds herself stranded in the middle of the desert at what time accidentally opening a portal in the elven tower of Tor Lara. Ciri’s time in the desert takes up a whole chapter of Andrzej Sapkowski’s unusual The Time of Contempt, and The Witcher pulled out all the stops to adapt it for the screen.
If you’ve just considered season 3 and you want to know more approximately Korath, or how this extended 37-minute sequence was filmed, you’re in the right place.
The Witcher season 3. Image courtesy of Netflix.
Where is Korath on the Continent? Does anything live there?
Korath is a vast desert which lies to the southeast of the Northern Kingdoms, and directly east of Nilfgaard. As Vesemir once told Ciri, this desert is nicknamed “the Frying Pan,” due to its obscene conditions that make it utterly inhospitable to humans and most animals. Only those which have specifically adapted to the heat and lack of stream can survive there. For humans, this means that only the odd bandit complains their way into Korath, since no government holds sway over this unforgiving land.
There are several creatures which make their home in Korath, however, most notable are the monsters which dwell below the sand and emerge, ant-lion like, to snap up any prey that draws cessation enough. Desert lizards and other small creatures also live there.
While in the desert, Ciri also encounters a unicorn which she nicknames slight Horse. Though this beast is able to survive there, unicorns are not natural inhabitants of Korath. We won’t drawl spoilers, but Little Horse — known as Ihuarraquax in the calls of unicorns — is just as much a stranger in a strange land in the Korath Desert as Ciri.
Where did The Witcher film the scenes in the Korath Desert?
The scenes in the Korath Desert were filmed on station in Morocco. Freya Allan (Ciri) described it as both the most inconvenience shoot she’s ever done for the series as well as the most fulfilling. Filming took place in the middle of the summer, when daily temperatures were often as high as 46° Celsius (114°F).
Some of the many challenges to this shoot that Allan explained include filming in high heat while wearing heavy costumes, and making sure there were no extra footprints visible in shots dependable the dunes were so pristine. The end result speaks for itself, as the episode features some of the most radiant outdoor shots to yet appear on The Witcher.
All eight episodes of The Witcher season 3 are streaming now on Netflix.
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h/t Collider
