Sure Sounds Like Children Are Gonna Die on The Witcher Kids’ Show

The Witcher’s a lot anticipated second season lastly debuts on Netflix this Friday, however there’s a lot extra Witcher-iness to return. Beyond the prequel TV collection, the second anime film, and already introduced third season of the flagship present, there’s additionally a children’ TV collection on the way in which. It was a shocking announcement given the world of The Witcher is rife with graphic violence, intercourse, and a few very darkish themes—however now we have now a little bit of a clue to how a PG Witcher present would possibly work.

Speaking to IGN, showrunner Lauren Schmidt mentioned how her workforce could be approaching the collection:

“[It’s] not to say that we’re going to take this universe, and then take out all of the blood, all of the sex, and all of the violence and then just present that back to children. To me, the thing that appealed the most in The Witcher, aside from the fact that it’s a family, are all of the moral thematics that [author Andrzej] Sapkowski has in there. His short stories, for instance, are fairy tales. Fairy tales are also written for children. There is a way to adapt these themes and these stories, with different characters of course, that lay the foundation for the Witcher world.”

Schmidt could be very appropriate about Sapkowski’s brief tales… however that doesn’t actually imply the children’ present will be capable to function blood, intercourse, and violence. It’s nonetheless bought to earn a TV-PG ranking if dad and mom are going to permit their kids to observe it. However, these authentic fairy tales—written centuries earlier than the sanitized Disney variations which have successfully changed them in popular culture—definitely featured children dying in grotesque methods, and it sounds just like the present might maintain true to that ethos, if nothing else:

“We’re also not going to shy away from some of the more controversial parts of it. We’ve talked a lot about how the Trail of the Grasses will feature in this, because we need it to. Without the Trial of the Grasses it’s not The Witcher. So those are conversations that we’re constantly having, but I know there’s a way to do it.”

The Trial of the Grasses, should you’re unaware, is the primary take a look at {that a} pre-Witcher undertakes to change into a full-fledged Witcher. In the books, it’s fairly deadly and grotesque, and requires injecting a secret mixture of herbs (the titular grasses), alchemic potions, and mutagens straight into the veins of paralyzed candidates. I’ll let the Witcher fan wiki clarify the method as a result of it’s fairly… descriptive:

“Most adepts died by the third day. The survivors, agitated by strikes of sudden madness, would fall into a deep stupor. Their eyes turning glassy, hands reaching for any nearby clothing, and breath loud and hoarse. After being administered the elixirs again, the children’s cough would progress into vomiting. They also suffered from seizures, while cold sweat ran down their skin. Thus weakened, the adepts fought with the mutagens, herbs, and viruses penetrating their bodies. When they woke up by the seventh day, their eyes had already turned cat-like. No more than three or, at best, four in 10 survived; the rest died in agony.”

That’s, uh, considerably extra brutal than a little bit of on-screen blood, and looks like it might undoubtedly must be toned all the way down to be TV-PG—but as Schmidt herself mentioned, “Without the Trial of the Grasses it’s not The Witcher.” It’ll be very fascinating to see how this finally ends up getting dealt with.

However it finally ends up portraying the trials, it looks like the present will observe a bunch of younger, potential Witcher initiates as they obtain their coaching. Presumably, this can most probably be set on the School of the Wolf at Kaer Morhen, to tie the collection to principal hero Geralt. However, by the point the occasions of The Witcher roll round, the college’s misplaced the power to create new Witchers, so a children’ collection would both must happen up to now or be set at one of many different Witcher colleges, of which there are a number of.

Wherever the present is ready, it sounds prefer it’s going to be a kind of Witcher High School action-drama, which isn’t that engaging. However, The Witcher is so good that the workforce making the spin-off completely deserves the good thing about the doubt, irrespective of what number of useless kids it does or doesn’t include.

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