Between His Dark Materials, Watchmen, The Mandalorian and more, you could be forgiven for feeling overloaded with terrific sci-fi and fantasy shows lately. But if we could bend your ear about just one more, you may thank us.
That last show is Netflix’s The Witcher, an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s popular fantasy novels. Set in a medieval-esque world full of warring kingdoms and ghastly monsters, the show follows Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), a professional monster hunter who gets swept up in a story that will take him and his companions to the ends of the Continent. The Witcher sports complex characters, a richly imagined world, and dazzling displays of magic. Based on the trailer, this is definitely one to watch, even in this crowded field.
Over on Netflix Italia, showrunner Lauren Hissrich and executive producer Tomasz Baginski break down the parts from the trailer you should pay attention to. Check out their video below, and then we’ll hit the highlights.
Okay, here are some of the most interesting bits from Hissrich and Baginski:
- Hissrich draws attention to Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) opening her violet eye. She compares it to another shot of Geralt opening his own eye. “For us it’s a really huge theme in our series, which is the idea of waking up into a new life, rebirth.” Yennefer’s change is more “drastic” than Geralt’s, which happens over time. Both Yennefer, a sorceress, and Geralt, a witcher, undergo physiological changes to be able to do what they do, but they’ll go on emotional journeys, as well.
- Anyone who’s read Sapkowski’s books, or played the Witcher video games from CD Projekt Red, knows that Baginski isn’t kidding when he says that the relationship between Geralt and Yennefer is “very very stormy, but very beautiful.”
- “Every time in the trailer where you see Geralt fighting, it’s Henry Cavill fighting. Henry does all of his own stunts on our show.” Kudos on you, Cavill.
Image: Netflix/The Witcher
- Considering Geralt’s profession, obviously the show will feature monsters. But the trailer purposefully holds back some stuff. “There’s a couple of new monsters we’ve come up with based on a lot of sort of Polish folklore,” Hissrich said.
- In the show as in the books, Geralt carries two swords: a silver one for killing monsters and a steel one for fighting human beings. In the video games, he carried both on his person, because the player had to be able to switch between them on the fly. The show takes the book route and has him keep his silver sword on his horse, Roach, who’s a character onto himself. Hissrich hints that she was surprised how comparatively little Geralt uses his silver sword. In The Witcher, the people are often trickier to deal with than monsters.
- The marketing for The Witcher has focused on three characters: Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri (Freya Allan), a wayward princess and Geralt’s eventual protégé. Some fans have wondered where this leaves Dandelion, a trouble-prone bard and a major character from the books and games. Don’t worry: he’s in the show, although Hissrich has opted to use his original Polish-language name: Jaskier. “Jaskier thinks Geralt is his best friend in the world. Geralt doesn’t necessarily feel the same about Jaskier,” Hissrich said.
Image: The Witcher/Netflix
- Speaking of Ciri, the show will give us a look into her nightmares. The poor girl goes through some trauma early on.
- The Witcher involves special effects — when a story involves this much magic, that’s pretty unavoidable — but the producers tried to keep the effects grounded and not overuse CGI. “We tried to have our actors interact with something real as often as possible,” said Hissrich. Added Baginski, kind of weirdly, “There is no better blood than real blood.” And by that, he means real fake blood…we hope.
To me, Hirrich and Baginski are saying all the right things. I liked their conversation about exploring the moral grey area of their characters, revealing the good within villains and the bad within heroes. I also appreciate Hissrich saying that there’s no need to purposefully shock the audience when the material is strong enough to stand on its own…although that doesn’t mean some moments won’t be shocking.
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The Witcher lands on Netflix on December 20. Merry advance Christmas!
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