The Witcher season 2 and The Lord of the Rings shut down over coronavirus

(Image credit: Katalin Vermes)

As large parts of the world go into self-isolation to combat the spread of coronavirus, it's been confirmed that production of two more major TV shows is being temporarily shut down. The Witcher season 2, which was filming in the UK, and Amazon's The Lord of the Rings series, filming in New Zealand, are both on hold right now.

Redanian Intelligence, a site that has broken Witcher-related news numerous times, first reported The Witcher's shutdown, with numerous outlets backing up the claim. It makes sense: Netflix previously shut down all production for shows filming in US and Canada, and Redanian Intelligence claims this new shutdown will last for two weeks, which lines up with Netflix's other shutdown notice.

The New Zealand Herald, meanwhile, reported that filming on Amazon's huge The Lord of the Rings series in West Auckland has been suspended for two weeks. Staff have reportedly been told that "there are no clear answers to when we will resume production". 

This is happening everywhere

It's a similar situation with TV shows and movies around the world right now. If there's an ongoing TV show you enjoy that's supposed to be filming right now, it's almost certainly on hold. The Flash? Shut down. Grey's Anatomy? Shut down. Stranger Things season 4? Shut down.

That's just the way things are right now. Whether it affects air dates or release dates of shows is yet to be seen, but the longer this goes on, it's more likely that series are going to be pushed back.

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Samuel Roberts

Samuel is a PR Manager at game developer Frontier. Formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor, he's an expert in Marvel, Star Wars, Netflix shows and general streaming stuff. Before his stint at TechRadar, he spent six years at PC Gamer. Samuel is also the co-host of the popular Back Page podcast, in which he details the trials and tribulations of being a games magazine editor – and attempts to justify his impulsive eBay games buying binges.

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