The Witcher cast and crew explain a new character, Dara

Netflix’s The Witcher, an adaptation of author Andrzej Sapkowski’s popular fantasy novels, is right around the corner. Unlike The Witcher games from CD Projekt Red, which build on the base Sapkowski built, the TV show is aiming to stay pretty true to the books. Anyone who’s read them will probably recognize a few familiar scenes in the trailer:

That said, there are always a few things that change in adaptation. So far as we can tell, the first season of the show will mainly adapt the first two books in the series: The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, both of which are closer to short story collections than straightforward novels. Both books mainly follow Geralt (Henry Cavill), the titular witcher, a professional monster hunter making his way in a world where the people can be more dangerous than the beasts. But the show will beef up the roles for characters like Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), Geralt’s on-again off-again sorceress love interest; and Ciri (Freya Allan), a deposed princess who eventually becomes Geralt’s protégé in the ways of the witching.

Ciri is the princess of Cintra, which is sacked by an invading army, forcing her to go on the run. In the books, this mostly happens “offscreen,” but it looks like we’ll see it up close and personal in the show. It also means we’ll spend more time with Ciri during her wandering afterwards. But unlike in the books, she won’t be alone, as Allan and showrunner Lauren Hissrich explained at MCM Comic Con London this past weekend:

"Hissrich: “Dara isn’t present in the books. Ciri’s journey this season is she’s on the run. There was a version without Dara, we needed someone for her to talk to and mirror her experiences.”"

"Allan: “Dara is a very crucial part of Ciri’s story… He is the main source for her different perspective and view point…He’s vital at keeping her going and they make a team.”"

So what I’m getting here is that Ciri is going to spend a lot of time alone and they needed to make up a new character to give her someone to talk to. In a book, it’s easy to convey what a character is thinking when they’re alone: you just tell us their thoughts. But on TV it’s a lot harder to do, not unless you want to have your character start talking to themselves, which makes them look crazy.

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So far, it looks like Netflix has a winner with The Witcher, and I’m looking forward to how they bring Sapkowski’s world to life, additions and all.

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h/t CBR