[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”26403″ img_size=”970×546″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Henry Cavill is starring in Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher. We’ve seen some promotional pictures and I have to say, it looks great. This epic adult fantasy saga is based on a series of bestselling novels. The stories include “morally ambiguous characters who continually challenge your assumptions about who’s a hero or a villain” (source: EW). The Witcher is set in a land that is called The Continent. It was invaded by demons from a parallel dimension, which essentially created a breed of monster killers that were called the Witchers. The story follows Cavill’s Geralt, sorceress Yennefer, and Ciri.
In a recent interview, showrunner Lauren Hissrich spoke about the series, how it compares to Game of Thrones, and some secretive storylines.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So what excites you most about this project?
LAUREN HISSRICH: I really love the idea of taking this series of novels that fans already love with and bringing them to a new audience. There’s also fun in exploring what happens between the pages of the books. The books explore events over a long period of time but there’s also the story they skip through — Yennefer. for instance, some of the more defining moments of her life, we hear about them in flashback. We got to explore them in real-time. It’s exciting to take Andrzej’s work and bring it to life.There are books, short stories, and videogames — a lot of potential story material laying around. Which is the focus of the first season?
We’re not adapting the videogames, it’s a straight adaptation of the books. Which is great as the videogames are also an adaptation of the books. They went one direction, we actually get to go another. We’re kind of holding close to our chest what we’re doing in the first season. There’s a lot of obviously epic excitement that starts in the saga of the books. But the short stories provided a lot of world-building and lay the foundation of this Continent and the politics of it and the understanding of the people of it and those really came into focus in the first season.Is there an outright villain? Or is that a secretive aspect?
It’s not a secretive aspect. There isn’t really a villain. One of the things we’re enjoying exploring is all the shades of grey in the books. The characters you’re rooting for in the beginning may not be the characters you’re rooting for in the end. And characters you hate and seem absolutely evil are motivated by something that’s really relatable and human and emotional. I found writing it and then watching it afterward that your allegiance switches a lot. You constantly try to put yourself in the shoes of characters and think what would you do [in a situation]. I think you’ll end up having a lot of empathy for characters you didn’t expect to.
The showrunner then went into the casting of Cavill. Surprisingly, Hissrich turned Cavill down at first, who is a major fan of the franchise:
Landing Henry Cavill coming off Mission: Impossible – Fallout and playing Superman was a huge score. How did that go down?
Henry is a huge fan of this property. He’s read all of the books. He’s played all the games. I met him at the very beginning of the process. He said, “I would love to play this character.” I said, “Henry, you’re amazing, but we haven’t even started thinking about casting yet.” Then I met 207 other possible Geralts. And I came back to Henry at the end. He was my very first meeting and four months later I called him and asked if he was still interested and he was. The first time I met him I hadn’t even started writing the scripts yet. And once I started writing I couldn’t get Henry’s voice out of my head for the character. Looking at the final product, it’s really exciting. He embodies Geralt in a way that I don’t think anybody else could.I noticed in the screen test clip put on Twitter that Geralt didn’t have yellow eyes. Is that added in post-production? Or are you ditching that?
He will definitely have some of the things fans love the most in the books. I think everybody will be impressed by how he looks.
When the interviewer assumed that The Witcher would be a little less adult than say Game of Thrones due to it being on Netflix, Hissrich made sure to set the record straight:
I take it you guys have more of a PG-13 vibe vs., say, Game of Thrones? Or is that an inaccurate assumption?
That’s a pretty inaccurate assumption! I’ve been rewatching dailies and my kids aren’t allowed to look at the screen anymore after one of them snuck around and saw something they shouldn’t have seen and it scared him. It’s a very adult show. I will add it was important to me that any violence or sex drives the story and is not there just for shock value. I think audiences are really savvy and know when we’re doing stuff to just shock them versus do stuff that really drives the story.What does Witcher bring that’s unique to the fantasy space?
The monster and horror aspect. It’s been done occasionally on fantasy shows but it takes a backseat to magic a lot of the time. Geralt’s a monster hunter so from the very beginning we talked about how to show these monsters and the humans they interact with. I think people are going to be surprised by how many monsters we were able to do and how integral they are to story. It really feels like the monster stories become analogs for bigger things happening in the world right now in different political phenomenons.
As far as a trailer:
And I’m sure fans are wondering when they can expect a trailer?
I cannot say. Obviously, things are ramping up and I cannot wait for fans to see something so I hope it’s soon.
For the full interview, check out EW.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
