While Netflix’s The Witcher has won itself a legion of fans since launching on the streaming service last year, one particular element of the show remains incredibly contentious. We are, of course, referring to the major timeline skips littered throughout season 1 and the resulting division among audiences.
While many have little issue with The Witcher‘s unconventional narrative structure, others have found it to be a major turn off, if not for its somewhat confusing nature, then simply because of a dislike for non-linear storytelling. Love it or hate it, though, the nature of Andrzej Sapkowski’s source material necessitated as such, or else the likes of Ciri and Yennefer would never have been present at all. Neither character is introduced in the books until further into Geralt’s journey, meaning showrunner Lauren Hissrich needed to find a way to have all three present at once.
With that said, however, Hissrich has revealed in a recent Reddit AMA that now that the major plot points and characters have been established, there’ll be no need for such things in season 2.
Answering one fan’s question, she said:
The narrative structure was put in place so that we could tell Geralt’s short stories (the foundation of the whole Witcher world, in my opinion), while Ciri and Yennefer could also be a part of the action. Their stories don’t happen simultaneously, so we knew we needed to play with time a bit. This will definitely change in season two, as they’re stories have begun to converge.
Honestly? I didn’t expect this to be one of the most hotly-contested parts of the series. I’ve heard a lot of people say “I didn’t figure it out until episode 4!” — which is exactly when we expected people would do it. I think it’s a matter of personal choice. I like movies with structures I have to figure out as I go — other people may not. In this case, the people who hated it will luck out, because S2 is structured differently. 🙂
Well, there you have it, folks – there’ll be no need to concern yourselves with piecing together a fractured timeline in season 2. A largely expected outcome, given how season 1 came to a close, but it’ll be reassuring to those left unimpressed by Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri’s standalone stories, nonetheless. At the end of the day, we now have indirect confirmation that the three will be sharing more screen time with each other in future installments of The Witcher, and that’s a win for everyone.
