The Witcher: How Netflix brought fantasy epic to life in new series

Alex Biese | Asbury Park Press

Amid a wildly engrossing saga of magic and monsters, Netflix's dramatic fantasy series "The Witcher" aims to tell a tale that's profoundly, painfully human.

“Fantasy has to be real people, grounded people, people that an audience can relate to, living in fantastical times, in a fantastical place, with fantastical circumstances," said showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. "So there is a fantasy fulfillment to it, right? There is a level of escapism to fantasy, but it can’t purely be escapism because then how do I, as a viewer, relate to that? I need to be able to see my own life in characters or my own conundrums, my own sort of internal debates, and that’s why I think 'The Witcher' really resonates."

(Take a look at the characters in action in images from "The Witcher" in the gallery at the top of this story.)

ON SCREEN: Gina Carano on embracing her strength for 'The Mandalorian'

Based on the work of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, "The Witcher" charts the journeys of monster-hunting mutant Geralt of Rivia (played by Henry Cavill), sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) and princess Ciri (Freya Allan) in the morally murky realm known as The Continent.

[ The trusted place to find the best home service providers. Find local pros. ]

Since launching in the mid-1980s, Sapkowski's "Witcher" saga has come to encompass a pair of short story collections and six novels to date, giving Hissrich and her team ample ground to cover in the eight-episode first season of their Netflix re-telling launching Friday.

“The themes that Andrzej Sapkowski approached, God, in the 1980s, are still so relevant today, which allowed us as writers to dig into issues of sexism, feminism, racism, xenophobia, immigration, war, endless war," said Hissrich. "We got to dig into those, but then we also got to dig into the characters and (ask): What is it like to be a person walking through this world?

"Because even if you just take our own world as an example, there’s a lot of bad (stuff) happening in our world right now but as a person I still have to get up every day with the sun. I have to get my kids off to school and I have to go to my job. I don’t get to just sit around all day and debate the big things happening in the world. And that’s what I think you get from ‘The Witcher.’ You get all of the epic touchstones of fantasy but you also get the real day-to-day human experience.”

AT THE MOVIES: The Soska Sisters remake Cronenberg with 'Rabid'

That human experience is enriched by the way Hissrich — who had previously served as an executive producer on acclaimed Netflix adaptations "Daredevil" and "The Umbrella Academy" — explores the backstories of co-protagonists Yennefer and Ciri "so that we as an audience understood who they were, what their desires were, where they were headed next, when they met and intersected with Geralt."

"It’s so exciting. It’s got adventure. It’s full of magic. It's a whole world," said actress Anya Chalotra, who plays Yennefer. "You can escape in it and that’s why people love fantasy genres because you can really escape and everyone, every kind of person, is accepted in a fantasy genre. That’s wonderful. But it also has such relatable human beings, and that is what 'The Witcher' is about.

[ Download our mobile app or purchase a digital subscription for all the latest entertainment news. ]

"With our series we’ve developed that. There’s a depth and a truth to all the characters. They’ve got such strong attributes that men and women can relate to. I think it’s a brilliant story.”

Over the years, "The Wicher" has ventured from the page to inspire a trilogy of hit video games, a Polish film and television series and comic books, among other adaptations. Both Chalotra and Freya Allan, who plays Ciri, said the pressure of stepping into such iconic roles was alleviated by the series' attention to character history and detail.

“Something that I was really glad about stepping into a role that is very known for being very badass, amazing at fighting, very strong in that sense (is that) I was relieved to see the vulnerability that was written," said Allan, "because she is ultimately a 14-year-old girl who then gets thrown into a world that she has never, ever experienced and she is in no way prepared for.

"And so something I was really glad about is it was real in the fact that she is incredibly vulnerable. She’s not just born and she can do everything. She has a lot to learn.”

The Netflix journey of Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri is set to take this trio beyond their initial eight-episode run.

Variety confirmed last month that an eight-episode second season will enter production in London early next year with an expected 2021 launch on the streaming service.

“When you’re writing, even as we were starting to write the first season, your brain kind of starts to explode," said Hissrich. "You get these fireworks that happen of the next round of stories you want to tell or characters that you meet that you’re like, ‘Oh my God, we have to get back into that character and deal more with him or her.’

"My goal is to adapt the books the best way I know how, and I will tell that story organically for as long as I possibly can. And then when it organically comes to an end as the books do, then we’ll stop doing it. But in the meantime I’m just excited to keep doing it.”

Cavill: 'I live in the fantasy genre' Henry Cavill discusses his role in Netflix's "The Witcher," saying "I always wanted to bring things like this to to the screen." (Dec. 4)

"The Witcher" launches its eight-episode first season Friday, Dec. 20, via Netflix, Netflix.com/TheWitcher.