When you settle into The Witcher Season 2, you’ll notice that the hero of the fantasy series, Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), looks a little different. As new-season images teased months ago, Geralt is rocking a new set of armor, which boasts intricate, multipart shoulder plating and elaborate torso definition. Geralt’s battle-ready costume from Season 1, in comparison, is much simpler. The feeling of seeing Geralt in new duds is immediately tantalizing after nearly two years without The Witcher. But Geralt’s outfit is more than a mere outfit change, according to the witcher himself, Henry Cavill.

“It’s a new look, and the redesign has made it a lot easier for me to move and fight,” Cavill tells Netflix. “I helped to design [it] with our wonderful costume designer, Lucinda Wright, and we put a lot of work into it in quite a short space of time.”

Viewers will likely first notice the new armor in the third episode of Season 2, “What Is Lost.” Geralt debuts the ensemble to confront one of Season 2’s most terrifying new monsters. However, if you keep a close eye on the cold open of the episode, you’ll notice the costume earlier than that. At the start of “What Is Lost,” Geralt is tinkering with a mass of leather and studs while watching Ciri (Freya Allan) practice her sword work. That mysterious bundle is what will eventually become Geralt’s perfectly tailored armor. That’s because the “evolved” new costume is another way to understand how Geralt settles into his true home, Kaer Morhen, the witcher keep and a new location this season.

“Geralt had to find new armor, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to stop anywhere to buy armor or make it, so he delved into the dungeons of Kaer Morhen and found something very old and from a different era, but still serviceable,” Cavill continues.

Cavill’s new co-star and Witcher father figure, Kim Bodnia, was similarly involved in bringing his character’s look to life in Season 2. Killing Eve alum Bodnia, who plays Geralt’s mentor, Vesemir, helped envision everything down to the witcher patriarch’s sword, which Vesemir wears on his back. The move is meant to evoke the aesthetics of a Samurai warrior; while Vesemir molded every other living witcher, he’s the only one with that quirk.

All together, this behind-the-scenes work suggests just how much effort Witcher stars are willing to invest in their on-screen personas. Cavill famously fought to land the role of Geralt before The Witcher even had a showrunner, recalling, “I called my team and said, ‘Let’s get on top of this before anyone else jumps at the opportunity.’ ” He didn’t initially get the part.

“They went through a full casting process, then came back to me, and it ended up working out in my favor,” he says. “So I went from feeling heartbroken to feeling quite good about it. Now I try to do everything I can to represent Geralt in the best way possible.”

Don’t be surprised if Freya Allan starts designing wigs for Ciri come Season 3.