Netflix’s The Witcher has overcome middling reviews to become the biggest show in the world and has quickly secured a passionate fanbase comprised of fans of the books, games and people new to the universe. The first season laid down some very strong foundations and its future is looking rosy, with season 2 having now entered production, season 3 already greenlit and showrunner Lauren Hissrich having plans for a seven-season story.
But now that we’re all familiar with the show’s angle on Sapkowski’s books, fans have questions about why they made certain decisions. One of them is that a major factor in the novels is that monsters are dying out and Geralt is struggling to find work slaying them, with his job quickly becoming redundant. Netflix’s show didn’t touch on this though, instead giving us a monster-filled kingdom.
But Hissrich is living up to her promise to engage with fans more than the Game of Thrones showrunners did and is chatting about their decisions on Reddit. In particular, she was asked: “Is there any particular reason y’all cut out Witchers and monsters alike becoming extinct?” Here’s how she replied:
“Season one spans about thirty years for Geralt, so monsters aren’t going extinct that whole time. But it’s something we delve into a lot more (in both cases) in season two.”
When pressed on this departure from the books, she expanded on their thinking:
“There was a fundamental issue for us here. It’s said a lot in the beginning of the books (and our series) that humans hate the Witchers, but also need them. That’s the rub. Needing what you hate. If there were less monsters at the very beginning of the series, then Witchers wouldn’t be as needed. They would disappear, as would their legend, and the hatred would dissipate. We needed the hatred in the series, to understand why our hero was an outsider. So we made the choice to keep the monsters more present for these thirty years.”
First up, I’m impressed that Hissrich is willing to engage with fans of the show so directly. A creative having such a forward-facing social media presence is a rare thing, especially for a woman. I think a lot of fan negativity could be prevented just by engaging with them, so kudos to her. Plus, I believe her justification is pretty on the ball. If The Witcher really is at the beginning of a seven-season arc, starting from a place where Geralt’s skills are needed and then gradually making him more and more obsolete is a cool story.
In any case, while season 2 of The Witcher might be a way off, rumor has it we’ll get an animated series exploring side characters to fill the gap in the meantime. And as soon as we learn more about that, we’ll be sure to let you know.
