The Witcher show will wrap up the same way as the books
By Dan Selcke
The Witcher is one of the most popular new shows on Netflix, with everyone eager to see the continuing adventures of Geralt of Rivia, Yennefer of Vengerberg and Princess Cirilla. And make no mistake: showrunner Lauren Hissrich intends to give it to them, even saying that she could write 20 seasons of the show if given the opportunity.
We’re pretty sure she’s exaggerating there, but the point is clear: she and her team are in this for the long haul. Still, the show has already (mostly) adapted the first two books in Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher series. That leaves five novels to go: Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow, and The Lady of the Lake. If Hissrich really wanted to stretch things out, she might be able to borrow some material from Season of Storms, which is set during the earlier part of the series.
However you approach it, the series is complete and there’s plenty of it left to adapt, if not 20 seasons worth; keep in mind that the Witcher books are fairly short compared to some other high fantasy books, like George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.
Speaking of that, it’s no secret that some fans had a few problems with the way HBO’s Game of Thrones, an adaptation of Martin’s work, ended last year. During an interview, Steve Varley asked Hissrich if she worried about messing up the conclusion to The Witcher, however far away that is. Does she have a longterm plan?
"You know, of course [these thoughts] come to your head because we all constantly, as writers, you are [in your brain] so often anyway and you’re always thinking ‘Oh God, what if I mess something up.’ The truth is, though, that our plan is pretty solid. Not that that means that we know everything that we’re going to do over the next two, or three, or seven, or twenty years. What I mean is that we have the books. I don’t feel the need to go beyond the existing books. They are great source material, Andrzej Sapkowski has written all of them, there is a natural ending to them and I feel like as long as we stick that landing, which is the ending of the books, then we’ll be good."
If we’re gonna compare The Witcher to Game of Thrones, as a lot of pundits have, it’s true that Hissrich is working with the benefit of knowing how the whole saga wraps up — The Lady of the Lake came out in 1999 in Sapkowski’s native Poland — whereas Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss didn’t know how Martin’s story ended when they started. And really, we still don’t know how similar the ending to A Song of Ice and Fire will be to Game of Thrones, although we’re waiting with baited breath.
Then again, Benioff and Weiss knew the ending they were aiming for years in advance, and it still proved very divisive. Knowing is only half the battle. And if Hissrich’s plan is to stick to the text, that might prove tricky, since the first season already made a lot of changes.
Ultimately, we’re talking about these questions way too early, but it’s hard not to get excited by the prospect of another longterm adventure. Let’s see how season 2 goes, and circle back in a bit.
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