Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series has already been adapted into films, comics, and best-selling video games. With this, fans of the franchise will undoubtedly scrutinize the upcoming Netflix series to see what it does differently from prior versions. The show’s producers have confirmed that Sapkowski’s novels will serve as the primary source of material. However, we shouldn’t expect the first batch of episodes to be a complete translation of the book series’ first installment.
Sapkowski kicked off the Witcher saga in 1993 with The Last Wish, a collection of short stories featuring the protagonist, Geralt of Rivia. Editions vary, but this installment is at least 350 pages. While speaking with ComicBook.com, executive producer Tomek Bagiński revealed that they weren’t able to squeeze every detail from the book into the series’ inaugural season.
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“Actually the books were a lot more source material than we could fit into eight episodes,” said Bagiński. “So we have to really be very, very careful with choosing which stories we want to tell. And [showrunner] Lauren [Schmidt Hissrich] did a really great job. Not only choosing the right stories to tell the story of Geralt, but also by giving some background both to Yennefer and to Ciri. Because for us the goal was always tell a bigger story. A bigger story comes up first with the saga, and the saga there is not only about Geralt and his friends, it’s also about Yennefer, it’s also about Ciri, and we knew that we have to build those characters earlier.”
Fortunately, Netflix has already decided to renew The Witcher for a second season. So whatever elements from The Last Wish they missed, perhaps they can explore them in future episodes.
All eight episodes of The Witcher’s first season will premiere on Netflix on December 20.
Which plot threads from The Last Wish do you think ended up on the cutting room floor? Tell us what you think in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading – The Last Wish: Introducing the Witcher
