Netflix’s “The Witcher” is best known in the U.S. for the series of role playing video games by CD Projekt Red rather than the fantasy novels by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski that inspired the games. But if the show ever moves past the story laid out in the books like “Game of Thrones” did, Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich says fans should definitely not expect it to mine the games for material.
“Extreme long vision is no, we will not start adapting the games,” Hissrich told TheWrap during a press round table at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. “I can only attack one season at a time, I’m so excited for this one, the rest kind of makes my mind explode right now. If someone says ‘what happens in Season 7,’ sure I have thoughts. Fingers crossed, we get there.”
The games, in case you’re not familiar, are a trilogy of stories that serves as a sequel to the books, picking up where they end and continuing the story of Geralt of Rivia, a famed monster hunter who keeps getting caught up in lots of major world events. So Hissrich is saying that regardless of whether “The Witcher” ever makes it past the stories told in the books, they won’t use the games as source material for further stories.
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The show stars Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra, and Freya Allan, along with Jodhi May (“Game of Thrones,” “Genius”) as Calanthe, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson (“Fortitude”) as Eist, Adam Levy (“Knightfall,” “Snatch”) as Mousesack, MyAnna Buring (“Ripper Street,” “Kill List”) as Tissaia, Mimi Ndiweni (“Black Earth Rising”) as Fringilla, Therica Wilson-Read (“Profile”) as Sabrina, Emma Appleton (“The End of The F**king World”) as Renfri, Eamon Farren (“The ABC Murders,” “Twin Peaks”) as Cahir, Joey Batey (“Knightfall,” “Strike”) as Jaskier, Lars Mikkelsen (“House of Cards,” “Sherlock”) as Stregobor, Royce Pierreson (“Wanderlust,” “Judy”) as Istredd, Maciej Musiał (“1983”) as Sir Lazlo, Wilson Radjou-Pujalte (“Jamillah & Aladdin,” “Dickensian”) as Dara, and Anna Shaffer (“Harry Potter”) as Triss.
It premieres on Netflix later this year.
TheWrap is in San Diego all week for Comic-Con 2019 — check out all of our ongoing coverage here.
klancej229 on July 22nd, 2019 at 16:29 UTC »
How bout a round of Gwent?
PunyParker826 on July 22nd, 2019 at 16:04 UTC »
I would be very very, very surprised if they ever reached the point where that'd become an issue. There's 2 short story collections followed by a 5 novel linear saga, each of which have more or less enough material for a full season of tv. So assuming they even have the budget to do something big like the saga (we're talking Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings-scale action and politics here, in certain segments), and assuming Netlix doesn't cut them off before getting there, this is like asking Vince Gilligan if there's ever going to be a spinoff about a quirky criminal lawyer and his misadventures before Season 1 of Breaking Bad even airs. It's just too far down the line. They'll handle it when and if they get to that point.
Everyone_is_taken on July 22nd, 2019 at 15:49 UTC »
If Netflix adapted stuff from the game, wouldn't they have to pay royalties to CDPR? Sticking to the books, they have to pay only the author...
But I'm still hoping for a scene with Roach on top of a house and Geralt saying something like 'What the fuck are you doing there?'.