The adaptation process is a fickle thing. Taking a work of art and translating from one medium to another takes an extreme degree of dexterity, articulation, and foresight. At its most base form, successfully adapting a story means both being well-versed and knowledgeable with regard to the original medium of the source material, and being incredibly adept at communicating the idea in a second medium. This is immediately a lot to ask, and is why so many adaptations of beloved properties fail to live up to the expectations of fans: successfully adapting a compelling story from one medium to another is incredibly hard.
There is perhaps no more powerful of an example of modern adaptation than that of The Witcher. What began as a series of fantasy novels written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski has since been adapted into a video game series and, subsequently, a Netflix original television series. As such, The Witcher is a fascinating case-study of how adaptations function, going from novel to video game to TV series, all while each of the stories in the other mediums were still running concurrently. In other words, neither the games nor the TV series were working off of a finished product in adapting the books, as Sapkowski is still adding to the source material with new novels and short stories. One might think this could benefit the books, increasing their popularity among audiences more familiar with the franchise thanks to these adaptations, but Sapkowski recently vehemently disagreed with this and instead referred to such efforts as “futile.”
Interestingly, each of the three different iterations of The Witcher are currently preparing to launch new installments. The fourth season of Netflix’s series just wrapped production, the CD Projekt RED is currently working on The Witcher 4 video game, and Sapkowski just released a new novel, titled The Witcher: Crossroads of Ravens. While other franchises might attempt to synchronize such efforts across mediums, Sapkowski has made it clear that his work is distinctly separate from any others.
When asked for his thoughts on the video game and TV adaptations by Polygon, Sapkowski simply said, “My thoughts vary depending on the situation and the specific matter at hand.”
Upon further questioning about the TV show and how it has effected the popularity of his books, Sapkowski said bluntly, “True book lovers need no convincing about the value of books and their advantage over visual adaptions… Devoted fans of visual media are unlikely to be swayed by this argument, and it is futile to try… We simply need to wait for them to mature and discover books in their own time. And they surely will, eventually.”
Clearly, Sapkowski has a bit of simmering disdain for fans who have embraced the adaptations of his work but not gone back to the source material from which it is derived, and understandably so.
Infamously, series lead Henry Cavill elected to leave The Witcher show over creative differences, as he reportedly felt the series was doing a disservice to the source material, which he loved. Judging by these comments, it would appear that Sapkowski feels the same.