Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski takes a swipe at Game of Thrones

Okay, so, some background on Andrzej Sapkowski, the Polish-born author of the Witcher books: he’s a talented guy and a good writer. His books are beloved by many people, as are the Witcher video games they inspired. Now, there’s a Netflix series based on his work on the way, which could expose a lot of new fans to his richly imagined fantasy world.

He’s also, um…kind of curmudgeonly? Easily my favorite example of this involves his stormy relationship with CD Projekt Red, the developers of those Witcher video games. Back when CD Projekt first approached him about buying the video game rights for the series, he demanded he be paid a lump sum rather than arranging for a share of the profits, assuming the games wouldn’t be successful. But they were successful…like, 33 million copies sold worldwide successful. The games played a huge part in popularizing Sapkowski’s books, which in turn drew the attention of Netflix. But in 2017, Sapkowski claimed that, if anything, his books made the games successful, which…sure, Andrzej. And then he demanded CD Projekt Red give him a share of the video game profits.

So yeah, he’s a character. Keeping all that in mind, what he had to say in front of a Warsaw audience back in 2018 about his role on the Netflix show is no surprise. “I believe that my job as a creative consultant for this series is to make sure that at NO point in the show [will] Ed Sheeran sing. And that I will make sure doesn’t happen. I will make sure.”

Sapkowski is talking, of course, about Sheeran’s appearance as a Lannister soldier in the seventh season of Game of Thrones, which at the time was one of the bigger scandals surrounding the show. How innocent we all were back then.

Now there’s absolutely no harm done here; Sapkowski is having some fun and being a bit of a grump, which is very on brand for him. I do now kind of want Sheeran to play the role of Dandelion, just to see what he’d do.

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As for the Witcher show, Netflix has wrapped filming on the first season. We may have even gotten a glimpse of the logo:

We can expect to see The Witcher season 1 later this year. If Sapkowski doesn’t have a cameo as a grumpy nobleman, it’ll be a missed opportunity.

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