The Witcher Showrunner Explains Netflix's Approach To Casting and Diversity

The Witcher TV adaptation by Netflix is poised to release later this year, and when it does, it will feature a diverse cast, something many have applauded the show for, but others have criticized it for, saying it betrays the source material, which is inspired and based in Eastern European folklore, especially of the Polish variety. That said, according to the show's showrunner, Lauren S. Hissrich, this wasn't by design.

During an interview with us, Hissrich revealed that the team never cast any character with inclusion in mind, but simply cast under the umbrella of "anyone's welcome."

"Yeah, you know we never cast with an eye to, it's like we don't cast with an eye to inclusion, we cast with anyone's welcome, come and prove yourself to us," said Hissrich. "In terms of The Witcher itself, I came at it from the very beginning that the continent is a huge place, and it's not our world."

Hissrich continued by noting that she didn't really care about a person's skin color or accent or hair color when casting, it was more about whether they embodied the character. However, diversity is still important, and it's something she talked about with the Andrzej Sapkowski -- the creator of the books which the show is based on -- a lot.

"I think when you watch it you'll see a lot of rules being bent in all different ways. I didn't really care so much about the color of people's skin, or their accents, or the color of their hair. To me, it was like do you embody this character? So, yeah, I also think it's really important, it's something that I talk to the author a lot about, talk to Andrzej about, which is that he specifically didn't specify the races of characters. I took that as a sign of approval that we could also cast as we wanted to cast."

The Witcher is set to release sometime during late 2019. For more news, media, and information on the upcoming show, be sure to check out all of our previous and extensive coverage of it by clicking right here.