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QuoteThe Witcher series is being turned into an English language Netflix drama by CG visual effects company Platige Image S.A.

The Witcher series was spawned by Polish novelist Andrzej Sapkowski and has spawned highly successful (and wonderful) video games.

"I'm thrilled that Netflix will be doing an adaptation of my stories, staying true to the source material and the themes that I have spent over thirty years writing," said Sapkowski, who will service as a creative consultant, in an official release. "I'm excited about our efforts together, as well as the team assembled to shepherd these characters to life."

The show will be executive produced by Sean Daniel (The Mummy franchise) and Jason Brown (The Expanse). The Oscar nominated visual effects studio Platige Image S.A. is doing the show, but the official release doesn't specifically state if it's CG animated or live-action—or a mix of the two. No stills have been release yet, either.

Quote from: Master on May 17, 2017, 12:26:40 PM
Oh my God! Best info in very long time.

Quote from: Tangakkai on May 17, 2017, 07:28:22 PM
Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm departing on the Hype Train. All aboard who want to join! Can't remember when I was this pumped for a movie/series of any kind.

Quote from: Ingwar on May 17, 2017, 08:02:07 PM

Quote from: Tangakkai on May 17, 2017, 07:28:22 PM
Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm departing on the Hype Train. All aboard who want to join! Can't remember when I was this pumped for a movie/series of any kind.

Departing or joining? :)

Quote from: Master on May 17, 2017, 08:59:36 PM
You know guys there already is one Witcher series. I do love my country, but damn it was crap.

Quote from: Tangakkai on May 17, 2017, 09:55:01 PM
You mean the Wiedźmin series that was later recut into a movie? Come on, that's not a fair forshadowing. It had no budget and the production company was laughable... Netflix on the otherh and has a very solid track record.

QuoteHenry Cavill has told IGN that he'd be interested in the role of Geralt in Netflix's forthcoming adaptation of The Witcher.

"The Witcher 3. I just replayed all the way through," said Cavill. "Love that game. Really good game."

Cavill also went on to reveal his love of the source material, Andrzej Sapkowski's series of fantasy novels. "The books are amazing," Cavill tells us. "The books are really, really good... The books I started reading, and they are well worth a read."

QuoteA recently surfaced casting ad reveals that The Witcher Netflix series may be taking some creative freedom with one of the series' star characters, Ciri.

According to a confidential National Youth Theatre ad listing, Netflix is looking "for a 16 or 15 year old BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic) girl who can play down to 13/14." The listing adds that the applicant must be under 18.

What's noteworthy about this is that Netflix and co. are looking for a nonwhite actress. As you may know, in the source material, Andrzej Sapkowski's book series, Ciri is depicted as racially white.

QuoteShe had fair hair, ashen white complexion and large impetuous green eyes.

QuoteThe Witcher [Confidential]
THE WITCHER for Netflix
Overall shoot dates: 18th October 2018 - end May 2019
Location: Budapest

CIRI
LEAD ROLE. OPTIONS REQUIRED
Cirilla. The Lion Cub of Cintra

Looking for a 16 or 15 year old BAME girl who can play down to 13/14.  Must not be older than 18 years old.

Resilient, Relentless, Brazen, Growing.

CIRI can often be found rough-housing with the Palace hands instead of sitting in finery at the knee of the QUEEN CALANTHE, her grandmother. That is, until Cintra is massacred by the Nilfgaardians and CIRI is orphaned, left to traverse THE CONTINENT, alone.  She doesn't know it yet, but she's a direct descendent of LARA DORREN, an Elven Mage – which is why everyone in our series is after her. We follow CIRI as she evades her captors, and in the meantime, discovers her magical talents, her dark side, and the role she is to play in the coming apocalypse.  We are looking for an extraordinary young talent to lead this series. She should be brave hearted and MUST have something truly special about her.

The Witcher an 8 x one hour, fantasy drama for Netflix created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich (The West Wing, The Defenders, Daredevil) and based on the book series of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski.

GERALT, a genetically enhanced monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.

GERALT's story entwines with CIRI, an orphaned young girl who wants to find a family & YENNEFER, a powerful sorceress whose beauty and talent come at cost.

Bound together by destiny, often against their will, the three must navigate THE CONTINENT together. And Geralt and Yennefer reliaze that they must protect this girl - who might just destroy the world. Need we say more?

If you fit the bill, please submit a headshot and CV to sophiehollandcast@gmail.com with the subject line 'NYT The Witcher' asap

Quote from: Master on Sep 08, 2018, 08:36:35 PM
In LOTR remake Gandalf will be black and gay...

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 08, 2018, 08:45:09 PM
I honestly hope they'll change their decision otherwise shit storm will flood them big time. Fans are getting fooking furious right now.

Quote from: BigDaddyJohn on Sep 09, 2018, 11:56:19 AM
Portray Blade or Luke Cage as a white dude ? LOL you'll have the whole universe falling on you for doing that...

Quote from: Highland on Sep 08, 2018, 11:48:58 PM
I dunno, depends how she does I guess. It would be a bit strange since it's not just a book to movie, but a game to movie and people already have images in their head.

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 09, 2018, 02:01:05 PM

Quote from: Highland on Sep 08, 2018, 11:48:58 PM
I dunno, depends how she does I guess. It would be a bit strange since it's not just a book to movie, but a game to movie and people already have images in their head.

It's not a game into a movie. Series is going to be based entirely upon the books. It has nothing to do with games.

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 09, 2018, 02:01:05 PM

Quote from: Highland on Sep 08, 2018, 11:48:58 PM
I dunno, depends how she does I guess. It would be a bit strange since it's not just a book to movie, but a game to movie and people already have images in their head.

It's not a game into a movie. Series is going to be based entirely upon the books. It has nothing to do with games.

Sapkowski's Witcher is strongly influenced by Eastern European (Slavic folklore and so on) and Celtic cultures. It's a cult following series in Eastern Europe, especially in Poland. I'm Polish and I know what I'm talking about. For Polish fans Witcher is like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter for English. Imagine non-white Harry Potter or non-white Robin Hood or non-white King Arthur. Wittcher is our Game of Thrones.

Ciri is white because her mother and father were white. Now they're gonna be Black, Asian, Latino looking?

Quote from: Highland on Sep 09, 2018, 02:04:33 PM

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 09, 2018, 02:01:05 PM

Quote from: Highland on Sep 08, 2018, 11:48:58 PM
I dunno, depends how she does I guess. It would be a bit strange since it's not just a book to movie, but a game to movie and people already have images in their head.

It's not a game into a movie. Series is going to be based entirely upon the books. It has nothing to do with games.

Well it's probably a bit more open to interpretation then, I mean Red in the Shawshank redemption book was an Irish guy.

Quote from: Highland on Sep 09, 2018, 01:59:17 PM
Happened with Nick Fury.

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 09, 2018, 02:01:05 PM

Quote from: Highland on Sep 08, 2018, 11:48:58 PM
I dunno, depends how she does I guess. It would be a bit strange since it's not just a book to movie, but a game to movie and people already have images in their head.

It's not a game into a movie. Series is going to be based entirely upon the books. It has nothing to do with games.

Sapkowski's Witcher is strongly influenced by Eastern European (Slavic folklore and so on) and Celtic cultures. It's a cult following series in Eastern Europe, especially in Poland. I'm Polish and I know what I'm talking about. For Polish fans Witcher is like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter for English. Imagine non-white Harry Potter or non-white Robin Hood or non-white King Arthur. Witcher is our Game of Thrones.

Ciri is white because her mother and father were white. Now they're gonna be Black, Asian, Latino looking?

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 09, 2018, 03:31:23 PM
I'm open-minded person but when somebody tries to force agenda (regarding movies) down the throat just for sake of diversity then I'm against that.

Quote from: BigDaddyJohn on Sep 09, 2018, 03:35:18 PM
We were talking about the other way around.

Quote from: Crazy Shrimp on Sep 09, 2018, 07:29:36 PM
Well, the author seems to think otherwise :P

https://twitter.com/LHissrich/status/994977654750167040

Quote from: Crazy Shrimp on Sep 09, 2018, 08:38:07 PM
It is better to not upset the Polish people, and I'm aware of how important is this particular canon for them. But the thing is that not every single fan was raised in that part of the world. Some are just racist folks. Also, the Witcher is a fantasy world, based on another fantasy from the real world but still a fantasy at the end of the day.  :P

The essence of the character should be more important than his/her physical appearance. Also, Poland was much more diverse in the past: Ethnic minorities in Poland. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_minorities_in_Poland)

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 10, 2018, 07:38:43 AM
I absolutely agree with Sapkowski and Lauren about this but unfortunately it doesn't apply to Ciri. She is not some minor unimportant girl. She is one of the main characters, next to Geralt and Yennefer. Imagine Robin Hood, King Arthur or Harry Potter played by non-white guy. Or imagine you're Japanese and you're watching movie about Miyamoto Musashi, legendary Japanese swordsman and philosopher, who is not portrayed by Japanese actor but by White or Black man. How would you feel about that?

Quote from: Highland on Sep 10, 2018, 10:33:11 AM
Well yeah there is clearly some sort of agenda if the casting specifically asks for a certain type of person when that character has never appeared as that type of person. Either because the author had that in mind or just the usual Disney bubbles.  I think you probably know the answer.

Could be good still if they nail a good actress, but can't say I don't understand the gripes. Be different if they looked at a lot of actresses THEN chose the best one for the part.

Quote from: Samhain13 on Sep 10, 2018, 01:06:37 PM

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 10, 2018, 07:38:43 AM
I absolutely agree with Sapkowski and Lauren about this but unfortunately it doesn't apply to Ciri. She is not some minor unimportant girl. She is one of the main characters, next to Geralt and Yennefer. Imagine Robin Hood, King Arthur or Harry Potter played by non-white guy. Or imagine you're Japanese and you're watching movie about Miyamoto Musashi, legendary Japanese swordsman and philosopher, who is not portrayed by Japanese actor but by White or Black man. How would you feel about that?

If black panther was played by a white guy, they would all acuse Marvel of racism.

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 10, 2018, 07:38:43 AM

Quote from: Crazy Shrimp on Sep 09, 2018, 07:29:36 PM
Well, the author seems to think otherwise :P

https://twitter.com/LHissrich/status/994977654750167040

I absolutely agree with Sapkowski and Lauren about this but unfortunately it doesn't apply to Ciri. She is not some minor unimportant girl. She is one of the main characters, next to Geralt and Yennefer. Imagine Robin Hood, King Arthur or Harry Potter played by non-white guy. Or imagine you're Japanese and you're watching movie about Miyamoto Musashi, legendary Japanese swordsman and philosopher, who is not portrayed by Japanese actor but by White or Black man. How would you feel about that?

---

Quote from: Crazy Shrimp on Sep 09, 2018, 08:38:07 PM
It is better to not upset the Polish people, and I'm aware of how important is this particular canon for them. But the thing is that not every single fan was raised in that part of the world. Some are just racist folks. Also, the Witcher is a fantasy world, based on another fantasy from the real world but still a fantasy at the end of the day.  :P

The essence of the character should be more important than his/her physical appearance. Also, Poland was much more diverse in the past: Ethnic minorities in Poland. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_minorities_in_Poland)

I do understand that it's just a fantasy. Ciri, Geralt, Yennefer and others are not Polish, they're not even Eastern European or Anglo-Saxon. Poland and other Eastern European countries and other cultures (for example Celtic one) don't exist in Witcher universe. It's all fiction. But Witcher novels are based upon Slavic/Celtic roots. Then why would you change one of the main character's origin into non-white? What's the point of doing it? Is there some kind of agenda? It's ridiculous.

Quote from: Samhain13 on Sep 10, 2018, 01:06:37 PM

Yeah, if they are truly excluding white women of participating in the casting process and trying to make the character have specifically an apperance that it shouldn't have while also knowing the response the fanbase will have... that pattern has repeated enough in several series to see that this is intentional with a agenda behind it.

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 11, 2018, 01:52:01 AM
You're right, people will talk about it but only in negative way. This agenda will ruin the series. Witcher is a cult following not only in Poland, but in Central and Eastern Europe as well. Fan love books and games and changing main character skin colour already have pissed thousands of fans. Just check twitter. People are furious as hell. What kind of marketing is this? It's nonsense. I don't get it.

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 11, 2018, 10:10:47 AM
Netflix underestimate die-hard fans and they're gonna pay for it unless they will change their casting decision.

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 11, 2018, 10:10:47 AM
They focusing of marketing instead of being respectful to the source materiel. Yes, fans are talking about it right now but not because they're happy but because they got mental. Make a good series that fans will like and enjoy and you will receive positive outcome. Doing what they're doing will make things worse. Mark my words.

Besides, what kind of marketing its this? Who's the target? Ordinary Netflix users? They don't even know what's happening because they're not Witcher fans. It doesn't apply to them. And if it doesn't apply then Netflix won't profit on them. Simple. Then why would you make Witcher fandom angry? Or any fandom in general? People will boycott this. You know how it ended up with Solo. Netflix underestimate die-hard fans and they're gonna pay for it unless they will change their casting decision.

Quote from: Russ on Sep 11, 2018, 01:05:22 PM
People talked about it and I'm betting it made some of them watch the show just to see what all the fuss was about.

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 11, 2018, 03:27:47 PM
Well, we can only wait and see what's going to happen. There is a difference between GoT and The Witcher. Both are based upon novels but The Witcher is well-known from its video games. Even if Netflix don't give a monkey about Eastern European fans and book readers they should consider gamers. They're a lot of people who have never read Sapkowski's novels but they love The Witcher universe from games. Netflix pissed off both. Readers and gamers.

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 11, 2018, 03:27:47 PM
Well, we can only wait and see what's going to happen.

Quote from: Ingwar on Sep 12, 2018, 11:46:16 AM
But then two questions remain: why doing so? and who would like to watch it?

Quote from: Highland on Sep 12, 2018, 01:04:47 PM
It's certainly an interesting subject and one that usually leads to name calling if you're not on board.

Quote from: Russ on Sep 12, 2018, 12:33:09 PM
In the case of the Witcher - I don't think they're trying to provoke anyone...

QuoteThe casting announcement received a ton of backlash as many fans were extremely unhappy that Netflix would be race-swapping the iconic Witcher character. It had many folks wondering if The Witcher Saga writer Andrzej Sapkowski had approved of the decision to race-swap Ciri given that Netflix cites him as a creative consultant for the show.

However, in an interview with Portuguese website JPN last December, Sapkowski appears to definitively answer just how involved he is with the Netflix series. Using Google Translate Sapkowski states:

"In all adaptations, be it the first or the last, I am never involved in its development. From my point of view, the book is the book and adaptation is adaptation. As Kipling said about East and West: 'This is East and West is West, and the two will never meet.' The adaptation and the original will never be found. Never. Adapters must be fitted. That's all I have to say about this because, as you may know, Netflix has signed a contract with me where it is explicitly listed that any production information I disclose will result in a severe financial penalty. Which is good for me, because I do not know shit. So I can not say anything."

He was asked a follow-up question specifically asking if he was not involved in the Netflix production. Sapkowski answered:

"Absolutely. And it will always be so. Netflix has forgotten to include my personal opinion on the contract and my personal opinion is that I do not know, and will never want to know, anything about the production."

QuoteNetflix's The Witcher series has found its Yennefer and Ciri.

Freya Allan (The War of the Worlds, Into the Badlands) and Anya Chalotra (The ABC Murders, Wanderlust) join Henry Cavill as Ciri and Yennefer, respectively, in the upcoming fantasy series based on the series of novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.The books previously inspired a best-selling video game franchise by Warsaw-based game studio CD Projekt Red.

Ciri is the young princess of Cintra, one of the kingdoms at the center of the plot. Yennefer, meanwhile, is a sorceress and Geralt of Rivia's (Cavill) main love interest. She is also a mother figure to Ciri.

Rounding out the cast are Jodhi May (Game of Thrones, Genius) as Queen Calanthe; Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson (Fortitude) as her husband, the knight Eist; Adam Levy (Knightfall, Snatch) as the druid Mousesack; MyAnna Buring as the head of the magical academy at Aretuza, Tissaia; Mimi Ndiweni and Therica Wilson-Read as novice sorcerers; and Millie Brady as the outcast Princess Renfri.

Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who previously served as producer on Netflix's Daredevil and The Defenders, will run the show and exec produce alongside House of Cards and Game of Thrones' Alik Sakharov.

Last month, Hissrich took a break from social media following backlash from an outspoken set of fans over a leaked casting notice calling for black, Asian and minority ethnic actresses for the role of Ciri (the casting call was just one of many for the role as Hissrich explains she was casting a large net for potential actresses).

On Sept. 10, she tweeted: "It's time for a Twitter hiatus. The love here is amazing, and the hate is enlightening, like a real-life Trial of the Grasses, except I HAVE to read less and write more — or we won't have a damn finale. Be back soon with more insight and more Roach. Be nice to each other, okay?"

She has since returned to the social media platform.

Hissrich spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about her new casting choices and the fan backlash she has received before the series has even gone into production.

This was an intensive casting process. How long of a road was this?

We hired our casting director in June and we've been working really intensely since. We have at this point cast about 50 people total. It really ranged. There were some people who I had in mind from the minute I started writing this character and then there were other characters — Ciri is the perfect example — that take a really exhaustive search. We ended up seeing over 200 young women from all over Europe and really saw a great group of girls, but then when we met Freya, she read for another role. I actually went to London to meet with her in person and we knew it right away.

The role of Ciri specifically caused a bit of backlash last month. Why do you think certain fans reacted that way?

It boils down to a couple things. One, this property has such a passionate fan base. 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. 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. There's obviously a couple lines of description of Ciri in the books and people become very enamored with their own vision of it. I think coming in as a writer and saying my vision might look different than yours is scary for fans, but truthfully I don't think it has to be. One of the things I feel most strongly about is people being afraid that we're going to strip out the cultural context of The Witcher, to remove its Slavic roots, the very thing people in Poland are proud of. That couldn't be further from the truth. What I've always wanted to do is take these Slavic stories and give them a global audience.

Does the fervor and anticipation around the series make it more appealing to you, or is it intimidating?

It's certainly not what attracted me to the project. What attracted me was how I felt about the books. I fell in love with them, the characters and the stories. The fervor around it took me by surprise at first, frankly. I had been on Twitter since 2013, but when I first stuck my neck out I was surprised with the response. It's something I feel really strongly about right now. I'm in this position to peel back the curtain a tiny bit to show people the process of making television. I wanted people to understand that I'm not trying to make this property my own or put my stamp on it, or make an American or female vision of it, or any specific vision of it. I just wanted people to know that I really respected the material. Truthfully, the controversy about Ciri, my own politics or the fact that I'm a woman, to me, just interacting with the fans has helped an enormous amount, because they see I'm on their side.

The Witcher series, while centered on Geralt, features many strong female characters. Will the show feature Ciri and Yennefer in prominent roles alongside Geralt?

Yeah, what's interesting is the first couple books are told from Geralt's perspective and when I was reading them I saw that there are all these other characters who are very strong and powerful; not just the women, by the way. They can be pulled to the forefront so it doesn't always feel like just Geralt's journey, because the journey of one man is never going to be very interesting. It's only going to be as interesting as the people he interacts with. That's why these characters are rising in prominence in the series.

Did you intentionally cast lesser-known actors opposite Cavill, who is an established name?

Not specifically, nor were we looking for a movie star when we cast Henry. We're looking for the best actors for these roles. Period. End of story. It comes down to the best actor for the role. Henry's obviously a big fan of the franchise. We met in early April and had a very general meeting. I then went off and met with hundreds of other candidates for Geralt and never really got Henry out of my mind. In casting Anya and Freya, the cool thing was we were open to anyone and both of them, to me, embody the spirits of the characters.

Did you specifically pull from the book series or did you also draw inspiration from the Witcher games? Does that muddy the waters a little bit to draw from too many sources?

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. 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.

Have you started production?

We're in prep. It's coming up soon.

QuoteAccording to a new insider report, Netflix is internally very happy with how The Witcher is shaping up, and is already thinking about greenlighting multiple seasons before the first season even airs.

The report comes way of KC Walsh, EIC of Geeks WorldWide and a known DCEU insider with a history of reliable information.

According to Walsh, Netflix is "very happy" with The Witcher, which presumably means how season one is coming together. Further, it is apparently ready to the pull trigger and order more seasons either before season one airs or shortly after.

QuoteMy job as creative consultant is to make sure that at no point in the show Ed Sheeran sings.

Quote from: The Old One on Jul 01, 2019, 06:02:46 PM
I haven't got the highest hopes after seeing the Nilfgaardian armour.

Quote from: The Old One on Jul 16, 2019, 07:08:15 PM
No scars though is worrisome.

Quote from: The Old One on Jul 16, 2019, 11:20:45 PM
Oh, interesting- hope the face injury isn't earned lightly, and it doesn't Terminator Salvation us.

QuoteENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So what excites you most about this project?

LAUREN HISSRICH: I really love the idea of taking this series of novels that fans already love with and bringing them to a new audience. There's also fun in exploring what happens between the pages of the books. The books explore events over a long period of time but there's also story they skip through — Yennefer. for instance, some of the more defining moments of her life, we hear about them in flashback. We got to explore them in real time. It's exciting to take Andrzej's work and bring it to life.

How did The Witcher first get on your radar? Were you familiar with it before or did you do a crash course after being approached?

A little of both. I read The Last Wish and really loved it. But I never would have called myself a fantasy writer before this. I've done some comic book shows, I've done a lot of drama. So when I read the book I loved it but never thought I should adapt it personally. When Netflix reached out I read the short stories again and started thinking about what could I bring to this. These three characters — Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri — really rose to the surface. If you take all the other fantasy elements away, you take the magic and story and violence and sex away, you still have three characters who are this broken disjointed family who really need each other even though they don't want to admit it. And that was one of the most appealing things to me.

There are books, short stories, and videogames — a lot of potential story material laying around. Which is the focus of the first season?

We're not adapting the videogames, it's a straight adaptation of the books. Which is great as the videogames are also an adaptation of the books. They went one direction, we actually get to go another. We're kind of holding close to our chest what we're doing in the first season. There's a lot of obviously epic excitement that starts in the saga of the books. But the short stories provided a lot of world building and lay the foundation of this Continent and the politics of it and the understanding of the people of it and those really came into focus in the first season.

Is there an outright villain? Or is that a secretive aspect?

It's not a secretive aspect. There isn't really a villain. One of the things we're enjoying exploring is all the shades of grey in the books. The characters you're rooting for in the beginning may not be the characters you're rooting for in the end. And characters you hate and seem absolutely evil are motivated by something that's really relatable and human and emotional. I found writing it and then watching it afterward that your allegiance switches a lot. You constantly try to put yourself in the shoes of characters and think what would you do [in a situation]. I think you'll end up having a lot of empathy for characters you didn't expect to.

Landing Henry Cavill coming off Mission: Impossible – Fallout and playing Superman was a huge score. How did that go down?

Henry is a huge fan of this property. He's read all of the books. He's played all the games. I met him at the very beginning of the process. He said, "I would love to play this character." I said, "Henry, you're amazing, but we haven't even started thinking about casting yet." Then I met 207 other possible Geralts. And I came back to Henry at the end. He was my very first meeting and four months later I called him and asked if he was still interested and he was. The first time I met him I hadn't even started writing the scripts yet. And once I started writing I couldn't get Henry's voice out of my head for the character. Looking at the final product, it's really exciting. He embodies Geralt in a way that I don't think anybody else could.

You started to address this at the end of that answer, but what's he like in the role?

In the books, Geralt is largely silent, to an extent. He tends to take in what's around him and process that internally. But you can't have [a lead character] process everything internally in a television show. So in the first episode, I wrote Geralt with a lot of lines. Henry shot them all, and in the edit we started pulling some of them out. Henry brings subtitles to this character, finding emotional resonance in small moments, and playing it in such a subtle way that you understand what the character is going through without necessarily having huge chunks of dialogue. By the time we got to episode 108 — the finale of the first season — we didn't even shoot half the dialogue because we knew there was so much Henry could do with Geralt that didn't require my words.

I noticed in the screen test clip put on Twitter that Geralt didn't have yellow eyes. Is that added in post-production? Or are you ditching that?

He will definitely have some of the things fans love the most in the books. I think everybody will be impressed by how he looks.

And casting Ciri? Obviously, there was some online controversy around casting that role.

I think that anytime you're doing casting and you're casting something that has a lot of existing fans you're going to get a lot of opinions about whether it matches fans vision. This franchise has millions of fans. We knew we weren't going to make everyone happy. As you know, per the controversy, we looked at everyone possible for this role. And when we found Freya we made her an offer that day. She's incredibly special. She's young, yet has the soul and maturity of somebody much older. She was able to bring a depth to this character. When Freya is in a scene with Henry they really rival each other.

I take it you guys have more of a PG-13 vibe vs., say, Game of Thrones? Or is that an inaccurate assumption?

That's a pretty inaccurate assumption! I've been rewatching dailies and my kids aren't allowed to look at the screen anymore after one of them snuck around and saw something they shouldn't have seen and it scared him. It's a very adult show. I will add it was important to me that any violence or sex drives the story and is not there just for shock value. I think audiences are really savvy and know when we're doing stuff to just shock them versus do stuff that really drives the story.

What does Witcher bring that's unique to the fantasy space?

The monster and horror aspect. It's been done occasionally on fantasy shows but it takes a backseat to magic a lot of the time. Geralt's a monster hunter so from the very beginning we talked about how to show these monsters and the humans they interact with. I think people are going to be surprised by how many monsters we were able to do and how integral they are to story. It really feels like the monster stories become analogs for bigger things happening in the world right now in different political phenomenons.

And I'm sure fans are wondering when they can expect a trailer?

I cannot say. Obviously, things are ramping up and I cannot wait for fans to see something so I hope it's soon.

Quote from: The Kurgan on Sep 12, 2019, 06:39:44 PM
Never saw it.

It was some obscure low budget TV movie right?

Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Nov 01, 2019, 09:50:02 PM
The Canary islands is a rather strange choice of location though, isn't it. Also good to see them filming in Poland since Poland is of course the origin of the Witcher books (and games).

Quote from: PlayStation LifeStyle by MandatoryThe Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski has told Wired Italy (translation via Redanian Intelligence) that the upcoming Netflix series has the potential to be a masterpiece.

"Yesterday I witnessed for the first time the screening of the trailer of The Witcher series, together with the fans," said Sapkowski. "I didn't even see the pilot episode because I like being surprised. But I can say one thing: if the series will be as beautiful as the trailer, we will have a masterpiece."

QuoteAt a press conference covered by Italian website Sugarpulp and translated by Redanian Intelligence, Sapkowski stated he did not care what was done with his characters outside of the books.

"I do not care what is done with my character in film or in other contexts, even if it is clear that he is my character and will always be my character."

These words echo those he spoke with Portugeuse website JPN in December 2018. Using Google Translate Sapkowski stated:

"In all adaptations, be it the first or the last, I am never involved in its development. From my point of view, the book is the book and adaptation is adaptation. As Kipling said about East and West: 'This is East and West is West, and the two will never meet.' The adaptation and the original will never be found. Never. Adapters must be fitted. That's all I have to say about this because, as you may know, Netflix has signed a contract with me where it is explicitly listed that any production information I disclose will result in a severe financial penalty. Which is good for me, because I do not know shit. So I can not say anything."

In fact, Sapkowski confirmed he wanted nothing to do with the production.

"Netflix has forgotten to include my personal opinion on the contract and my personal opinion is that I do not know, and will never want to know, anything about the production."

Sapkowski would also confirm that he was not involved with the production in an interview with Wired:

"I worked as a consultant for the series, in the initial phase of writing the story, and I was very well paid to do it. But I was not involved in the actual production, in the casting or in the shooting, and when I see the images from the set, or the trailer, I am always amazed."

He added:

"Everyone asks me how I imagine Geralt and the others, or the setting of the books, even compared to what appears in the series or in video games. The truth is that I don't visualize the characters and the scenes I write, I don't have an image of their own in mind. All I do is put one letter after another until I have filled a page. I have no idea how they should appear on screen."

In the press conference, he reiterated that sentiment:

"I just write words, put the letters in the right order. But when I write I don't see anything, I don't imagine anything. I don't know the difference between a craftsman and an artist, but one thing is certain, I am an artist. I'm a f****** artist! I've been creating just like Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa."

In the interview with Wired, Sapkowksi would make it clear he is not a feminist.

No. I love women, I love their role in a story and in the world, but I don't make it a philosophy.

However, he notes his story features determined and strong women.

"Of course: because this is how it is in real life. Women are and always have been stronger than men."

Quote from: Julian Parry via Bloody DisgustingBut how much will the series lean into the horror elements of the story? Chatting with Games Radar, visual effects supervisor Julian Parry promises a horror-heavy approach!

    "I definitely think it leans more towards horror," Parry told the site.

He continued, "We're definitely taking the fantasy out. I can honestly say we're not fantastical. I mean, it's fantastical but in a grounded horror sense. For example, with Striga [a woman cursed to live as a monster], that's one gnarly-looking thing. That's very unpleasant!"

    "The Witcher" is an epic tale of fate and family. Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.

Quote from: Fiendishly Inventive on Nov 22, 2019, 07:40:51 PM
Looks as though it's mostly the first book.

Quote from: Ingwar on Nov 22, 2019, 08:02:43 PM

Quote from: Fiendishly Inventive on Nov 22, 2019, 07:40:51 PM
Looks as though it's mostly the first book.

Not one but two books (collections of short stories): The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny.

My predictions:

Spoiler

The End's Beginning will be based upon The Lesser Evil from The Last Wish: "a butcher named" refers to the Butcher of Blaviken.

Betrayer Moon is based upon The Witcher from The Last Wish: "a picky eater" is striga, king's daughter, "a family shamed".

Of Banquets, Bastards, and Burials is A Question of Price from The Last Wish: "The Law of Surprise" refers to Duny offering Geralt whatever he asks for.

Bottled Appetites is based upon story The Last Wish from The Last Wish: "A fateful meeting" is about Geralt meeting Yennefer for the first time and "a bard is maimed" refers to Jaskier or Dandelion in English translation (Netflix will be fateful to the source calling him Jaskier).

Rare Species is based upon The Bounds of Reason from Sword of Destiny: "The hunt for a dragon" is about a hunt for a legendary golden dragon Villentretenmerth.

Much More is based upon Something More from Sword of Destiny: "The Witcher family" is when Geralt reunites with Ciri.

[close]

I cannot decipher Four Marks and Before a Fall.

Quote from: Fiendishly Inventive on Dec 04, 2019, 09:18:47 PM
I imagine that's going to be early in the show, if that's the Urcheon of Erlenwald.

Quote from: Fiendishly Inventive on Dec 21, 2019, 06:55:43 AM
While the personal combat surpasses or equals the best of Game of Thrones at its best

Quote from: Russ on Dec 22, 2019, 03:40:08 AM
This show is bad. Cavill is a good actor - yet, he's not acting. Why is Superman pretending to be Batman? Reading your lines in a raspy voice is not acting. I'm more invested in everyone else's story at the start than I am in yours.

Quote from: Fiendishly Inventive on Dec 22, 2019, 02:48:50 PM
The majority of audiences don't agree with your issues and neither do I, issues do exist but you're completely off the mark.

QuoteLook, I know your opinions on the Alien series, the RE series and the DC "Cinematic Universe" so I can't trust your taste at all.

And I don't think anyone else ought to.

Quote from: Local Trouble on Dec 29, 2019, 12:08:51 AM
I still haven't played the games so is this show a worthy entry point into the lore?

Quote from: Local Trouble on Dec 29, 2019, 12:08:51 AM
I still haven't played the games so is this show a worthy entry point into the lore?

Quote from: Fiendishly Inventive on Dec 29, 2019, 07:02:12 AM
I say do: Introducing The Witcher/
The Last Wish, Season of Storms,
Sword of Destiny, Blood of Elves,
Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire,
The Tower of the Swallow,
The Lady of the Lake, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, The Witcher 3:
Wild Hunt.

Quote from: Local Trouble on Dec 29, 2019, 11:50:13 PM

Quote from: Fiendishly Inventive on Dec 29, 2019, 07:02:12 AM
I say do: Introducing The Witcher/
The Last Wish, Season of Storms,
Sword of Destiny, Blood of Elves,
Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire,
The Tower of the Swallow,
The Lady of the Lake, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, The Witcher 3:
Wild Hunt.

Is that all?

Quote from: GamesRadar"What's great about season two, I can tell you, is that, in what we've written, the story becomes much more focused. There's a stronger drive in the story, because all of the relationships that we've been setting up in season one, actually start to come into fruition in season two," Hissrich tells GamesRadar+

Hissrich also hints at The Witcher season 2 moving away from the approach which led to the main characters of Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer being separated for much of the series so far: "Characters start meeting and interacting more. That goes well sometimes. It doesn't go well sometimes. But it's kind of like, all of those building blocks that we set up for the world, finally start to come together into something a little more concrete."

Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Dec 30, 2019, 04:43:08 PM

Quote from: Local Trouble on Dec 29, 2019, 11:50:13 PM

Quote from: Fiendishly Inventive on Dec 29, 2019, 07:02:12 AM
I say do: Introducing The Witcher/
The Last Wish, Season of Storms,
Sword of Destiny, Blood of Elves,
Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire,
The Tower of the Swallow,
The Lady of the Lake, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, The Witcher 3:
Wild Hunt.

Is that all?

You better get cracking, you're not getting any younger.

Quote from: io9io9 has confirmed that Netflix is currently developing The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, a standalone anime film that is designed to expand the world of Netflix's series. According to the plot description, the movie "explores a powerful new threat facing the Continent."

Nightmare of the Wolf is being helmed by The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and writer Beau DeMayo, who also worked on the first season. Studio Mir, the Korean animation company behind The Legend of Korra and Netflix's Voltron: Legendary Defender, will be the folks creating it. No other details are available yet, including whether Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra, and others will be reprising their roles in the movie.

Quote from: DeadlineBrit teen Laniado will join for a minimum of three episodes as Violet, a young girl whose playful and whimsical demeanour is a front for a smarter and more sadistic character.

We hear filming gets underway this month in the UK on the second season with cameras also expected to roll in Scotland and parts of Eastern Europe. The word is that the fantasy show is setting up shop at Arborfield Studios, 40 miles west of London. The first season shot in Hungary, Poland and Spain. Netflix was unavailable for comment.

Quote from: Redanian IntelligenceThe second season of Netflix's fantasy hit The Witcher began filming earlier this month. While stars Henry Cavill and Freya Allan trained with The Witcher's new stunt team, Anya Chalotra joined the crew for a location shoot just outside of London. We have now uncovered exciting details about the shoot at Dorking, including exclusive pictures of the film site and extras in costume as The Continent's fearsome Elven guerillas: the Scoia'tael.

Quote from: Redanian IntelligenceActor and stunt performer Joel Adrian has been cast as a character named Hemrik. From what we were able to find out, Hemrik is a witcher from Kaer Morhen. This is an original character and doesn't appear in the books, so we cannot say where or rather when will we see him. He could be part of some flashbacks that would perhaps show young Geralt's training or he could appear in the current timeline, maybe added to the main witchers' lineup for unknown reasons.

Quote from: Lauren Schmidt Hissrich via The Wrap"Obviously, it was one of the most controversial parts of Season 1 and I didn't expect it to be as controversial as it was. But it's something I still stand behind, in terms of storytelling," Hissrich said, adding that the "goal was to get to know each of these characters individually, and the only want to do that was to separate their timelines."

"What's great though is they have intersected now. So what we'll see in Season 2 is that all of our characters are existing on the same timeline. What that allows us to do storywise though is to play with time in slightly different ways. We get to do flashbacks, we get to do flash-forwards, we get to actually integrate time in a completely different way that we weren't able to do in Season 1. Because, if you can imagine, if we were in three different timelines (in Season 1) and then flashed forward or flashed back, we would have been in four or five or six timelines — even I know that's too much. So I think it will be a lot easier for the audience follow and understand, especially a new audience coming in. But there are still going to be some fun challenges with time."

Quote from: ace3g on Jul 27, 2020, 03:22:22 PM
https://twitter.com/NXOnNetflix/status/1287734489607618562

Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Dec 20, 2021, 01:30:46 PM
It's made all the more upsetting being that the first episode adapted perhaps my favourite Witcher story of all time nearly perfectly.

Quote from: Ingwar on Dec 20, 2021, 12:24:29 PM
I need a drink.

QuoteNetflix's The Witcher Writers Room 'Actively Disliked' The Books and Games

The Witcher writer Beau DeMayo reveals some of the Netflix series' writers actively disliked Andrzej Sapkowski's books and CD Projekt Red's games.

On an Instagram Q&A, as reported by The Direct, DeMayo discussed his work on the upcoming X-Men '97 series for Disney+ and the requirement that the writers involved needed to be fans of the material. He compared the experience to Netflix's The Witcher, stating, "I've been on show - namely Witcher - where some of the writers were not or actively disliked the books and games (even actively mocking the source material.)"

He went on to say, "It's a recipe for disaster and bad morale. Fandom as a litmus test checks egos, and makes all the long nights worth it. You have to respect the work before you're allowed to add to its legacy." The writer did not mention specific names and offered no further criticism of the team's approach to The Witcher.

QuoteHenry Cavill's Departure from The Witcher Originated in Season 2

Henry Cavill's departure from The Witcher shook the fandom to the core and left it with many questions regarding how, why and what now. There are many speculations regarding the reasons and anxious waiting for some official words. That said, the seeds of this situation may have been growing for a long time now and we'll look at a piece of information we were told back in 2021 that may have been the beginning of all this.

It all may have started on Season 2

Back in Summer 2021, when The Witcher Season 2 was in post-production and Season 3 hadn't been renewed yet, we heard from a source that recasting Geralt was a growing possibility at Netflix. The reason for that was that Henry Cavill was considering leaving the series after Season 2 because he and the producers "weren't seeing eye to eye" regarding content and Geralt's role in the The Witcher.

At the time we believed Henry wasn't 100% serious about it and would not really go through with leaving the series since he fought so hard to get that role. So instead of reporting on it, we chose to sit on this information and see where it goes.

And indeed, our beliefs were solidified when Season 3 was officially confirmed in September 2021 and a little later, in November, a report from The Hollywood Reporter appeared saying Cavill had "just renewed" his contract and would be getting $1 Million per episode for Season 3 as opposed to $400K, his earlier The Witcher salary.

After that chronologically came The Witcher Season 2 promo tour. Cavill made it very well known during that tour that he had been pushing for a more book-accurate Geralt as he kept saying a variation of that in almost every interview he gave.

Knowing about him considering leaving the series just a few months earlier, made the impression that while Henry was returning for Season 3, his frustrations weren't completely gone since he made that a constant talking point during that time. Here's just one example:

"The toughest part for me was finding that balance between the showrunners' vision and my love for the books, and trying to bring that Geralt to the showrunners' vision. It's about treading a fine line there. It's the showrunners' story and so it's an adaptation. The tricky bit for me was finding Geralt from the books' place within that and being able to serve both as much as I could.

The things that I pushed for, it was not necessarily just more dialogue. It was bringing a more book-accurate Geralt to the screen. [...] All of my asks and requests were along the lines of just being faithful to the source material."

Nevertheless, we believed that whatever issues Henry had, Netflix solved it with the renewal of his contract. the matter was closed, Henry Cavill made peace with his role and would still be Geralt of Rivia until the end of the series.

Now, however, Deadline reported that "Cavill had made a short-term deal for The Witcher and felt it was time to move on after three seasons on the show".

With the context of the previous report about his "new deal", it looks like Cavill agreed to stay at least for one more season after Season 2 and chose not to renew his contract for further seasons when the time came this year.

The Superman angle

Meanwhile, the Superman opportunity appeared again. Dwayne Johnson claimed that he and his manager Dany Garcia, who is also the manager for Cavill, have been trying to get Henry Cavill's Superman back in the DCEU for six years, but were constantly rejected by the old Warner Bros management, while under the new management they finally succeeded in the recent months.

One recent report by The Hollywood Reporter says that a new Superman film is in very early development without any writers or directors attached. It's unclear when will they find a writer and when they could start filming, but it's very very early and major films like that can take a very long time to get underway.

On the other hand, writing for The Witcher Season 4 had just started and filming could get underway in the second half of 2023.

A schedule conflict between Superman and The Witcher isn't impossible, but Cavill himself said in a 2019 interview that he could manage both, when asked that question:

"You've got to keep in mind that regardless of what movies I'll be doing over the next few years, you can fit two projects into one year."

In the same round-table, he expressed his desire and hope to reprise the role of Superman and said he had still much to give to the character. So at least from Henry's perspective, Geralt and Superman could coexist.

The result of the two factors

All in all, the various pieces create a picture, as incomplete as it might be.

Henry Cavill was at first very enthusiastic to play Geralt and was willing to make efforts to combine both Superman and The Witcher in his schedule. Even before he landed the role of Geralt, according to Dwayne Johnson, his return as Superman was already being pushed behind the scenes, albeit unsuccessfully.

Then in 2020 and 2021, Cavill was working on Season 2 of The Witcher and was constantly having disagreements with the producers over the work he was doing. After Season 2 wrapped, he seriously considered leaving The Witcher, but was offered more money and decided to stay for at least one more season.

Even then, during an interview, he said he was "absolutely" committed to seeing all of the seasons of The Witcher through, but "as long as we can keep telling great stories which honor Sapkowski's work". With the current news, it appears that this was less of a wish and more of a condition.

During the filming for The Witcher Season 3, we did notice that some within the Witcher production started following Liam Hemsworth on social media. Naturally, we didn't think anything of it, but now it appears that the new Geralt auditions may have taken place while Season 3 was still in production.

By the time Season 3 was in its final stages of production, major changes were happening to Warner Bros and DC with the new bosses being open to having Henry Cavill as Superman again. As a result, during that time Cavill filmed his Black Adam cameo.

In the end, it appears that Henry Cavill's heart was no longer in the Netflix's iteration of The Witcher for a considerable amount of time and he has slowly been making up his mind ever since Season 2 finished production, before all those Warner Bros and DC changes.

His return as Superman had a perfect timing this year and may likely have been that one final push towards not renewing his contract for Season 4 of The Witcher.

Henry Cavill may have hinted at his departure earlier

Cavill may have had a commentary about this situation a few days ago in his interview with Josh Horowitz. In it, he talked about the importance of having belief in what you're doing career-wise and the importance of stopping when you believe what you're doing is wrong.

"It's just about belief. If you believe what you're doing then you'll be able to keep on doing it. It's also important to know that if you realize you're doing the wrong thing, that's when you stop doing the wrong thing. You don't just keep on going just because. Because that leads down a dark path."

Cavill doesn't name The Witcher at this point, as his departure was a secret at the time, but one can easily assume that this was his philosophy when deciding to quit the series.

Quote from: ace3g on Oct 29, 2022, 08:19:32 PMhttps://twitter.com/witchernetflix/status/1586433840318648321

Quote'Dandelion,' the Witcher sighed, now genuinely tired. 'You're a cynic, a lecher, a womaniser and a liar. And there's nothing, believe me, nothing complicated about that. Goodnight.'

Quote"Stop staring at me this instant!" the sorceress shouted at Geralt. She writhed like a snake in her bonds in a vain attempt to conceal her naked charms. Geralt obediently diverted his eyes. Jaskier didn't. "According to what I see," mocked the bard, "you must have used a whole barrel of mandrake elixir, Yennefer. Your skin resembles that of a sixteen-year-old girl. It's giving me goosebumps." "Shut up, you son of a whore!" the sorceress replied.

Jaskier didn't relent, "How old are you really? Two hundred years? Rather a hundred and fifty, say. And you act like..." Yennefer stretched her neck to spit at him. It missed its target... "Yen," muttered the witcher sadly, wiping his saliva spattered ear with his shoulder. "Make him stop ogling me!" "I have no intention of doing so," declared Jaskier, continuing to admire the pleasant view of the half-naked sorceress. "It's because of her that we're prisoners. They'll cut our throats. At the very least, they're going to rape her. At her age..." "Shut up, Jaskier," ordered the witcher. "Not on your life. I have a burning desire to compose a ballad about a pair of tits. Please don't interrupt me." "Jaskier," Dorregaray spat out some blood, "be serious." "I'm very serious, damn it."

QuoteWe have a very, very good plan to introduce our new Geralt and our new vision for Geralt with Liam. Not going deeply into those ideas because this will be a huge spoiler, [but] it's also very, very close to the meta ideas which are deeply embedded in the books, especially in book five. It's very lore accurate. It's very close to what was set out in the books and I think this change will be quite flawless. But at the same time it will be a new Geralt, it will be a new face for this character and I think it will also be very, very exciting to see.

Quote'The Witcher' Season 3 Premiere Sees 15% Decrease Versus Season 2 As Audience Wanes Across First 5 Episodes

The first five episodes of Season 3 hit the streamer on June 29. Since then, 1.1M U.S. households have tuned in to the premiere, according to L+5D data from Samba TV. That's a fairly strong debut, though it is a 15% decrease compared to the 1.3M U.S. households that tuned in to the Season 2 premiere during the same window.

Interestingly, viewership for the remaining four episodes of Season 3 suggests that audiences may not be sticking with the series. Samba measured that about 893,000 households watched Episode 2, and that shrank to 750,000 for Episode 3. For Episode 4, 602,000 households tuned in, while Episode 5 drew less than half the premiere audience with 505,000 U.S. households.

According to Samba, all eight episodes of Season 2 drew more than 1M U.S. households during their first week of streaming after they debuted in December 2021. Season 1 of The Witcher remains one of Netflix's most popular TV seasons of all time.

Samba's data doesn't tell the whole viewing story, though it does give a pretty good picture of the series' performance in its first few days of availability. Samba TV doesn't measure mobile, however, their sample includes a panel of 3 million terrestrial TVs, weighted to the U.S. Census. By contrast, Samba TV's panel is nearly 100x larger than Nielsen's household footprint of 45K homes.

Nielsen has yet to report any data for Season 3 of The Witcher. Netflix reported that the first five episodes drew 15.2M views (73M viewing hours divided by a 4 hour and 49 minute runtime) in its first weekend on the platform — which easily catapulted it to No. 1 on the streamer's Top 10 TV list for the week.

Time will tell whether audiences stick with the series, which has already been renewed for Season 4. The second half of Season 3 is set to drop on Netflix on July 27.

"Netflix dropped the first installment of season 3 of The Witcher, resulting in 1.1 million households tuning into Henry Cavill's last season as Geralt within the first six days streaming," said Cole Strain, VP of Measurement Products at Samba TV. "Older millennials (A35-44) over-indexed by the highest margin of any age group by nearly 10% compared to the average household. Yet the data indicates viewer interest may be waning for the Netflix series. Last season, every episode drew in over a million households within its first week of streaming. This season, however, fewer viewers have returned in the initial viewing window, with the series experiencing a 15% decline between the most recent season and season two's premiere."

Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Jul 07, 2023, 02:08:10 AMhttps://theinsightfulnerd.com/2023/07/06/the-witcher-an-adaptation-that-hates-its-source-material/

Quote from: ace3g on Jul 13, 2023, 03:08:32 PMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXgNtafDWeY

Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Jul 23, 2023, 08:56:30 PMEva Green would have been better as Síle de Tansarville.

Quote'The Witcher' Casting Director Admits To Using Her Job To "Affect Change" In Viewers And Manipulate "Their Unconscious Bias

"In the book, she's described as the most beautiful woman in the world. This was a few years ago and I'd like to think things have changed. But when you think about people's unconscious bias – especially in the fantasy world, it felt like these worlds were predominantly white. And I remember saying, 'I feel like we need to challenge what people think of as the standard of beauty. And having a woman of color in this role does incredibly powerful things to the people watching," she admitted.

Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Aug 06, 2023, 07:10:14 PMSigh.. why must everything always have to be simplified for our seppo cousins?

Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Aug 06, 2023, 07:10:14 PMSigh.. why must everything always have to be simplified for our seppo cousins?

Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Aug 06, 2023, 09:16:55 PMThe key lies in respecting the intelligence of the audience in the first place.

Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Aug 06, 2023, 07:10:14 PMSigh.. why must everything always have to be simplified for our seppo cousins?

Quote from: Local Trouble on Aug 06, 2023, 08:31:03 PM

Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Aug 06, 2023, 07:10:14 PMSigh.. why must everything always have to be simplified for our seppo cousins?

Because we don't understand it! >:(

Quote'The Witcher' Producer Blames Stupid Americans And Emotional Young People For The Show's Failures

There are times when we should probably keep our mouths shut. Times when silence is golden.

For instance, let me introduce you to Tomek Baginski, a producer on the Netflix fantasy drama, The Witcher. Baginski should perhaps follow the adage "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."

In an interview with Polish news site Wyborcza (as translated by fan-site Redanian Intelligence) Baginski gave many reasons why changes were made to The Witcher show that deviated from the books and short stories, including production chaos and unforeseen issues like actors falling ill, all of which strike me as eminently reasonable, before saying this:

When a series is made for a huge mass of viewers, with different experiences, from different parts of the world, and a large part of them are Americans, these simplifications not only make sense, they are necessary. It's painful for us, and for me too, but the higher level of nuance and complexity will have a smaller range, it won't reach people. Sometimes it may go too far, but we have to make these decisions and accept them.

Did you hear that, fellow Americans? The "higher level of nuance and complexity" in the books will be lost on us. We are too stupid. It is not the show's fault, but our own and we must humbly receive our lumps.

It's true! In fact, we were so confused by the books that we didn't turn them into best sellers in the United States. Our poor, empty heads were so rattled by the complexities of CD Projekt Red's games, that we didn't turn that trilogy into one of the most lucrative and well-regarded RPGs in history (The Witcher 3 won over 200 Game Of The Year Awards, including many from American award-givers).

The poor creators of The Witcher were quite literally forced to dumb down the show because so many Americans were going to watch it and clearly—clearly!—that requires changes from the books that make no sense and are confusing for totally different reasons. Huzzah!

But wait, it gets worse.

It's not just Americans. No, changes to The Witcher that almost certainly drove away its star, Henry Cavill, and have seen the most egregious dip in viewership for its Season 3, Volume 2 episodes, also lays at the feet of young people and TikTok. Behold this wild exchange between the interviewer and Baginksi:

Baginski: The audience changes, it's not like... It all changes. I see the [quickening] of the processes Jacek Dukaj wrote about in his book After the Script. We resign from cause-and-effect chains, from linear narration. This book-like narration. When it comes to shows, the younger the public is, the logic of the plot is less significant.

Interviewer: What is significant, then?

Baginski: Just emotions. Just pure emotions. A bare emotional mix. Those people grew up on TikTok and YouTube, they jump from video to video.

Interviewer: You're talking to such a person.

Baginski: Okay, so it's time to be serious. Dear children, what you do to yourself makes you less resilient for longer content, for long and complicated chains of cause and effect.

If you look up the definition of 'condescending' in the dictionary, you'll find this exchange. The interviewer just told Baginski that he was the demographic in question and that's followed with a "Dear children" response! Really?

If Baginski was hoping to score some anti-American points with a Polish audience, I'll just say this: Those of us Americans who are upset and disappointed with the show are upset on Poland's behalf. The work of Andrzej Sapkowski is based on eastern European folklore (to some degree) and the way this show has Americanized The Witcher, transforming it into mirky, generic fantasy, is yet another example of the kind of cultural imperialism that we are fighting against.

In any case, I have a hard time blaming the writers when I see a producer make these comments. I'm certain that a great deal of this show's true problems come from the top down, with writers forced to make changes they otherwise wouldn't even consider. Certainly there are writing problems as well, but this makes it obvious that the dumbing down of The Witcher was intentional and motivated by money and greed.

If Americans and young people can't handle complex television, why are shows like Game Of Thrones so popular? Why does Succession win so many awards? Why was House of the Dragon a hit? Americans enjoyed The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and plenty other smart shows. And young people—those addled by TikTok and Instagram—seem to enjoy many of these shows, too. They are not driven purely by emotion. I have two teenage children who enjoy shows like Severance and Barry, shows with complicated characters and narrative.

This is one of the most insulting interviews I've ever had the misfortune to read. Netflix should keep a tighter leash on its spokespeople. Better yet, hire creatives who don't have disdain for their audiences and the source material they're seeking to adapt. It isn't that hard.