A new video from Hellblade 2 star Melina Juergens shows how she went from somebody who could theoretically do a somersault to a proper mo-cap warrior.
We still haven't seen much of Hellblade 2 - officially titled Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 - beyond that initial reveal trailer yet. But Juergens behind-the-scenes video confirms that realistic combat is going to be an even bigger focus for the sequel. Their philosophy would be that whatever cool moves Juergens could do, they'd go in the game. If she couldn't pull them off, they wouldn't go in.
"It all sounded like fun and games, but to be honest I had no idea where to start," Juergens admits. "Like, how does one become a warrior? What kind of training do I need? Am I still allowed to eat pizza? There were a lot of questions that needed answering."
The pursuit of more authentic combat would eventually lead Juergens to take a film combat course, and later take one-on-one lessons from C.C. Smiff, the swordmaster for the new Star Wars trilogy and Game of Thrones. Juergens also started more intense fitness training, which presented an extra challenge.
"I suffer from a chronic pain condition called fibromyalgia which basically means my joints and bones and things like that are always in pain and I have a lot of fatigue," Juergens explained. "And also when I'm training I need quite a lot of time to recover after every session."
Watching her spar against Hellblade 2's animators at the end of the video, it's clear her work has paid off. It's been a while since that reveal trailer, so hopefully we can see some of Juergens' new sword skills in-game soon.
Hellblade 2 is easily one of our most-anticipated upcoming Xbox Series X games.
