The Witcher showrunner “could write 20 seasons” of the show

The upcoming Netflix fantasy TV series The Witcher has a Game of Thrones look to it, and if it’s a hit, apparently there’s a wealth of story potential to tap.

That’s according to Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich, who discussed her ideas about where the show could go with Cinema Blend.  “It’s funny,” she remembered, “because I said in an interview that I could write seven seasons. I also said I’m sure later that day I could write 20 seasons if given the opportunity. I could keep writing the show for a very long time. As long as people are interested in it and as long the source material is there to organically build from.”

Okay, so lets do the math. Netflix’s The Witcher is based on a series of seven books (two of which are collections of short stories and five of which comprise the “Witcher saga”) by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Netflix has thrown a lot of money at the series, casting Henry Cavill as taciturn monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia, Anya Chalotra as the sorceress Yennefer and Freya Allan as the princess Ciri.

Generally speaking, one novel equals one season of TV, although obviously there’s no hard and fast rule (The Last Kingdom adapts two novels per season). At the moment, it looks like the first season will draw stories from the first two books, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. After that, who’s to say they couldn’t spend six seasons adapting one novel if the content is there?

Image: The Witcher/Netflix

We doubt it, though. More likely, Hissrich is just expressing her enthusiasm. Although if anybody knows the potential of Sapowski’s books, it would be her. “This season of course carries a lot of weight because you’re setting up the entire world,” she said. “You need to set up all of the characters, you need to set up the politics, you need to start to understand what a witcher is and what they do and how that’s changing in the dynamics of the world. The first season carries a lot of weight, but there’s a lot of things that we did this season to set up events that we know we want to happen in Season 2 and beyond.”

Hissrich has the luxury of being able to take something of a long view on the show’s development, since Netflix has already ordered a second season. And while the show will obviously adapt things from the novels, Hissrich cautions that there will be some plotlines the fans won’t recognize. “A lot of times there are changes that we made in the lore or in the original material in order to [avoid predictability],” she said. “It’s funny, what I will tell people is, you come across in Episode 3, there’s a character that’s introduced that wasn’t part of that story in the books. That’s done for a very particular reason. You may not know it in that episode, but we’re planting all of the future seeds that we need to tell stories in later seasons.”

Image: Netflix/The Witcher

As with all big dramas, The Witcher is guarding its secrets. Star Freya Allan (Ciri) explained that she knows “literally, barely anything” about the future of her character. “We don’t get told anything,” she said. “We’ve got the book and I think everyone knows where Ciri and Yennefer’s story is gonna go, but no we don’t really know in terms of this series. Anything could happen.”

If we’re comparing The Witcher to Game of Thrones, then The Witcher has the advantage of working off a completed novel series, which hopefully means they can start planting seeds for the end very early on.

The first season of The Witcher drops on Friday, December 20.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels