The Witcher Showrunner Addresses Dandelion Name Change Criticism

For those that don't know: Dandelion is indeed in The Witcher Netflix series, he's just under a different name. In the show, the character is referred to as Jaskier, which is actually the character's name in Polish (Dandelion is the character's name in English). As you may know, this has been a somewhat controversial adjustment, and something that showrunner and creator Lauren Hissrich has caught flak for. That said, during a recent video where Hissrich broke down the show's latest trailer with executive producer Tomek Baginski, the showrunner addressed the controversy.

"This is Jaskier," said Hissrich, speaking about the character on screen with Geralt. "There's been some drama about the fact that I chose to write Jaskier as Jaskier and not Dandelion, as he's known in English."

At this point, Hissrich doesn't dive into why she opted to go with the character's Polish name, but in the past she's mentioned it partially came down the pronunciation of the name.

"We call him Jaskier... It's interesting, because people ask about Jaskier all the time and why we went with his original name. It is funny, part of it was because when I read the books I read it as Dandelion (the flower), and then I listened to the audiobooks. Dandelion (pronounced Dan-dill-ion), how would I get that?"

Elsewhere in the video above, Hissirch notes that Jaskier thinks Geralt is his best friend in the world, however, Geralt doesn't necessarily feel the same about the bard.

"Yeah, Jaskier drives Geralt a little bit crazy. He's a little bit of a truth-teller to Geralt, said Hissrich about the character earlier this year. "You know, I always talk about that soft squishy place inside Geralt that he wants to keep it all in, and Jaskier basically points at it. He's like a five-year-old, and like digs in and sort of just basically poke at him."

Of course, for anyone used to hearing the bard referred to by his English name, it's going to probably take awhile to get used to hearing him called Jaskier. However, at the end of the day, it's a minor detail that really has no tangible impact on the show's quality.

The Witcher is set to release -- via Netflix -- on December 20, 2019. For more news, rumors, leaks, media, and information on the show, be sure to peep all of our previous and extensive coverage of it by clicking right here.