A newly published interview with The Witcher‘s Lauren S. Hissrich sees the showrunner discuss her meeting with author Andrzej Sapkowski, the influence of the CD Projekt Red video games on the Netflix show and how Henry Cavill chose the horse that would play Geralt of Rivia’s trusted companion Roach.

Blog Hobby Consolas sat down with The Witcher‘s showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich on set in Budapest in February 2019, with their article just now releasing.

Recalling her meeting with Andrzej Sapkowski, Lauren said: “I met him in person last April (2018) when I went to Poland and we had a great meeting. Andrzej has been involved as much as he’s wanted to and from time to time he and I have had discussions about the plot, the casting and the characters. He has all the scripts and will come visit us soon.”

Lauren S. Hissrich drinking with Andrzej Sapkowski

Asked about any potential negative impacts of the video games’ popularity for the show, Lauren was confident: “I’m not worried by the great success of the video games or the images that viewers already have. I see it as a great opportunity. We’ve been clear from the beginning, this is an adaptation of the books.

“I’ve played [the game] and it’s great. I’ve read the books and I won’t stop reading them just because of the show’s premiere. It’s an opportunity for me to let people feel and entertain themselves with something different. And what I mean by that is that when you play, for example, you make the decisions, you’re influenced by the character, which is amazing. To think, what would this character do [if I were not part of it]? And what drives me to create this series is to develop new aspects to the characters and developments within the story, beyond what people know.”

But will the Netflix series feature anything from the games? Lauren’s said: “No, the truth is that we don’t take specific references from the video game, we don’t use the characters they created, but the spirit of the video game is there and that’s the important thing for me.”

‘Come on, Roach!’

“I think we take fantasy seriously,” she added, “and one of the things I love is the dry humor that it has. Roach was one of the things I talked about with Netflix when planning: we have to choose the horse well, and Henry definitely did it. He came to know the horses and chose him, he said: ‘that is Roach’, because the horse is important and I’m not kidding, there’s a humorous relationship between them. I think it’s something that appears in the video games that we’ve brought to the series.”

Speaking of Witcher adaptations, there is another one that doesn’t get as much attention. The Hexer, the Polish TV and film adaptations from 20 years ago. Lauren has seen them, too: “I have seen the movie, people sent me dragon clips… It’s fun to see how The Witcher was adapted 20 years ago and how different the process is now, in 2019. There are obvious things like the technological development, but the audience is now very clever and they’re always looking to find something new. The original show lets you see how entertainment has changed in 20 years.”

The most beautiful (The Hexer, 2001)

Recently, Hobby Consolas released an interview with Henry Cavill, where he too addressed the show’s relationship with the games (or the lack thereof). Another interview featuring Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan (who play Yennefer and Ciri respectively), explored their interpretation of their characters and the pressure of appeasing hardcore fans.

Starting this coming Sunday, October 27, and throughout the following week, The Witcher will attend MCM London Comic Con and the Italian Lucca Comics and Games. The show’s first full-length trailer is expected to release on the eve of Halloween, and will likely reveal the release date. Follow Redanian Intelligence’s Twitter account for all the updates, as well as the live-tweeting of the show’s panels throughout the week.

Like this: Like Loading...