The Witcher’s New Franchise Universe Is Making It Up as It Goes Along

If you’ve learn greater than a few Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher novels, the Polish author has created a wealthy and complicated fantasy world for his monster-slaying hero Geralt, sorceress Yennefer, and Witcher-in-training Ciri to inhabit. But the masterminds behind Netflix’s Witcher TV sequence, the current anime film prequel Nightmare of the Wolf, and the three further Witcher initiatives within the works clearly aren’t afraid to go off-book.

On one hand, this is sensible, as a result of The Witcher franchise has grown so rapidly—the present was given a second season earlier than the primary even aired, and two anime motion pictures, a live-action prequel TV sequence, and a family-friendy animated present had been all introduced earlier than that second season has arrived—that it seems like Netflix would want to look past the supply materials. But there are eight books in The Witcher sequence—so why look elsewhere? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Netflix Vice President of International Originals Kelly Luegenbiehl defined, “Sapkowski created this very rich world, but in some ways only hinted at the potential of it.”

Case in level, the Conjunction of the Spheres—the traditional occasion that introduced the worlds of elves, males, and monsters collectively that defines the sequence’ world and dictates a lot of The Witcher’s story. According to author/producer Declan De Barra, “We were trying to understand what the world was like for elves right before the Conjunction of the Spheres. It’s very vague in the books as to what happened.” The outcome was the story that’s forming the idea of the live-action TV prequel sequence Blood Origin; in line with Luegenbiehl, De Barra created it primarily based on “a few lines in the books.”

Having learn a number of Witcher books, I can say… I get it? I do assume the setting Sapkowski created feels absolutely realized, however I by no means felt like I used to be let into the world of The Witcher in the identical was as sequence like Game of Thrones, The Kingkiller Chronicles, The Wheel of Time, and extra. To put it one other manner, I felt like Geralt and different characters knew all the mandatory context—like, all of the issues that occurred throughout the Conjunction—and I used to be working alongside them, making an attempt to determine it out with out being allowed to ask any questions.

But that’s simply me, and whereas it hampered my enjoyment of the books considerably, it actually didn’t influence how a lot I loved the primary season of The Witcher TV sequence. Happily, season two lastly arrives on December 17—greater than sufficient time for Netflix to announce one other TV sequence or film (or each).

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