The Witcher has been a cult hit with gamers
We don’t know if you heard, but Game of Thrones is ending soon.
Which means soon, the world is going to need another swords ‘n’ violence TV show in their lives, that everyone initially sees and goes “Oh, that’s for nerds, I’m not watching that,” and then three years later are obsessed with and will not shut up about.
Enter: The Witcher.
The Witcher is a series of fantasy novels and short stories by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. They centre around Geralt of Rivia, the titular Witcher, who is a monster hunter for hire with supernatural abilities who lives in a Westeros/Middle Earth type world called The Continent, filled with elves, dwarves, werewolves and vampires.
Of course, The Witcher is most famous in the UK for its acclaimed video game adaptations and in particular, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which came out on Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC in 2015.
The series has been adapted into films and a TV show in its native Poland. But now Netflix is producing an English language version, and as we all know, Netflix do not fuck around when it comes to big epic shows like this.
The adaption is being show-run by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who has previously written episodes of The West Wing, Daredevil and The Defenders. And she has been tweeting about the show, indicating that it is about to start casting.
It's Friday night in LA, and it's been a seriously great week here at #Witcher.
So.
Let's talk casting. Yes, I said the magic word! Casting is starting soon, and no, I can't tell you who our top picks are so don't ask. But. There is something very important you need to know. pic.twitter.com/9dfkhBIyo0
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) June 23, 2018
Normally, when casting a show, the casting director pulls character-specific scenes from the pilot script for actors' auditions. However, because we're casting internationally (which means lots of emails and self-tapes) and because we know by now the internet keeps no secrets —
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) June 23, 2018
— the writing staff has instead created entirely new scenes for our main characters. These are written to illustrate the precise tone, vibe, depth, and emotional resonance we need from Geralt and friends… but voila! They are spoiler-free, for us and for you. Which means —
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) June 23, 2018
— if you start seeing Witcher scenes floating around the internet in the coming weeks — yes, they're probably real! But no, they won't give anything away as to the stories we're telling, or the ways we're telling them. You're safe. For now.
And hells yes, his name is Jaskier.
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) June 23, 2018
Jaskier, in case you do not know the franchise, is the charming, womanising, poet friend of Geralt, and is a fan-favourite character. His name actually translates as ‘Dandelion’ in English, but the original Polish sounds much cooler.
She previously reassured fans that she was sticking faithfully to the books.
Everything will be organically derived from the books.
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) May 10, 2018
We don’t know much else, but Netflix have offered this brief official synopsis for the show:
The witcher Geralt, a mutated monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.
