Netflix 'The Witcher' Showrunner Discusses How the Games Influenced the Series

We've gotten a lot of news today regarding the highly anticipated Netflix adaptation of the [...]

By Liana 'LiLi' Ruppert

We've gotten a lot of news today regarding the highly anticipated Netflix adaptation of the beloved The Witcher books, but many were wondering about if the creative team would work in a few video game-specific nods into the upcoming series as well.

Though we know the Showrunner and her crew are working closely with the author of the series that spawned an iconic franchise, Lauren Hissrich herself has talked about how much she loves the games herself. When speaking with the Hollywood Reporter, the Showrunner offered a unique insight into how the books and games have 'muddied' the waters a bit for her and her creative direction:

"It does muddy the water a little bit for me. I'm a huge fan of the games. That being said, what I really tried to steer away from is that the video games right now are the sole visual representation of these stories and we needed to create our own visual representation."

She added, "As I've been developing the series I've actually pulled back from playing the video games because I wanted to make sure the show we were creating was its own unique thing."

As huge fans of the game series ourselves, we can sympathize that this is a hard one to pull back from, but we admire her dedication to keeping the source material organic. Though the games were incredible, they weren't meant to be an exact replica of the books which could have meant a convoluted narrative. Luckily, Hissrich has proven time and time again how loyal she is to the fan-base and how committed to this project she really is.

In the same interview she also talked about how passionate the community is and how that led to some rocky roads in the past, "It boils down to a couple things. One, this property has such a passionate fanbase. I think any leak at all was going to attract this type of attention, and with any attention comes backlash to that attention. I do think that whatever information is trickling out there, there will be people responding positively to it and people responding negatively to it."

She added that she understood the immediate reaction and explained that it's part of the business, "I think that's just part of making a television show, and especially a show this big. In terms of why people responded so strongly, I think the fans really have pictures of these characters in their minds and I don't blame them for that. I get it. When I read my favorite books I certainly imagine characters a certain way."

The Witcher Netflix series is currently without a release date, though it is slated for some point next year. For more details on the project, click here.

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