The Witcher: News Update

Before I update the news about the show, I should go over some of the basics of the world--I've been assuming readers are familiar with at least the games, but that's a poor assumption. So, let's briefly summarize.

Background of the Stories

Sapkowski's series occurs on 'the Continent,' whose rough geography echoes Middle Earth with the focus being in the north and west and the non-European cultures being south and east (Westeros also shares this idea, although GRRM expanded things in a way Sapkowski never did). Ever since The Lord of the Rings was published, most epic fantasy writers have inverted, or at least altered, his idea of vastly superior Elves giving way to more numerous, but inferior Humans. Sapkowski, echoing his D&D forebearers (there's a lot of Dungeons & Dragons in the series, including AD&D racial variety--gnomes, halflings, dwarves, etc), has a nonhuman world invaded and eventually dominated by humans. There are differences--it's not quite Dragon Age where the ethical delineation is clear--instead there's a prior conquest by the Elves that is then repeated by Humans. Following a fairly standard Tolkienian trope, Humans are taught things by the Elves (in this case, magic--an idea GRRM echoes with the Children of the Forest, who are his version of Elves). Monsters are, for the most part, introduced by an event called 'the Conjunction of the Spheres,' where entities of another world (like vampires) are introduced into the Continent (as well as magic itself). This event causes the creation of witchers, and that's the backdrop for our protagonist, Geralt. During the time period of Sapkowski's books, the Balkanized group of northern kingdoms is under threat from an empire which is largely German in flavour (echoing, to some extent, Polish history). Skellige, despite it's Celtic flavour in the games, is based on the Norse.

In terms of the story itself, Geralt is the protagonist--the focus--we follow his journey. Yennefer is his primary love interest (she's insufferable in the books as far as I've read--two novels and a prequel remaining), while Ciri is a child of prophecy who eventually becomes the adopted daughter for the two lovers (I'm also not fond of her portrayal in the books--the games improve both). There are a host of other characters, but Jaskier (Dandelion) is the most prominent, sharing in many of Geralt's adventures.

As for the style, Geralt is more like Robert E. Howard's Conan, rather than a typical epic fantasy hero--he's an outsider who is savvy about the world around him (rather than a naive outsider like Frodo, Harry Potter, Garion in The Belgariad, and so on), allowing him to make social commentary about the world, while being an active participant in it. Geralt also shares Conan's general good nature and self-focus, while struggling to figure out just what is good and ethical in a corrupt society (he shares some superficial similarities with Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, but he's far less laissez-faire in his approach to society--Geralt wants it to be better, whereas Leiber's characters want to make fun of and enjoy it). In short, Geralt is a hero, not an antihero. Sapkowski's world is politically much more like A Song of Ice and Fire (GOT), which borrows heavily from historical fiction, rather than the black and white of Middle Earth. Politics and politicking are important and heavily impact the plot, such that more mystical aspects like Fate aren't the only determining factors.

Sapkowski's romances are simplistic, but his approach to racial and cultural prejudice is more sophisticated (ie, it's not the simple equation of oppressed people=good, oppressors=bad--the Star Wars paradigm). Like most modern fantasy writers he favours characters who are flawed, who make mistakes that include bad or even evil decisions (making them feel very realistic). In this way he's a step beyond GRRM who, despite his reputation, actually leans quite heavily into heroic characters (Jon Snow is the most obvious example, but extends to most of the main protagonists). With that said, some of Sapkowski's social commentary is clunky and can read like Hallmark cards. However, I'm moving far afield from simply describing the books, so let's go back to the news about the show.

News

Let's open up with the biggest news: the show has been officially renewed for a second season (which will air in 2021; scripts for it are complete and filming is expected to begin in early 2020). The Redanian Intelligence (TRI) believes it will appear in the January-April window in 2021. The news of the renewal isn't a surprise, as back in July an insider said it was getting two more seasons. Such renewals this early are less about how good executives believe the show is (ahem, Bright), and more about the high cost of producing shows like this and needing to recoup the investment.

The writing room for the second season has seen one change, as Jenny Klein took a deal with Amazon (she's been replaced with Matthew D'Ambrosio, who was a script coordinator in season one, and also, possibly, Rae Benjamin, who is a newcomer). It appears as though director Alex Sakharov won't be back, which is disappointing given his track record, but otherwise who the directors are is unknown.

TRI (and here) offers up information that's dropped about the show that indicates a number of changes from the source material (I've put it in episode order, as best as possible):

• Cintra will fall in either the first or second episode (I agree with TRI that the former makes more sense), meaning Ciri is on the run for most of the season; another change is Geralt being present for that event--seemingly borrowing from "Something More;" there was also confirmation that the Battle of Marnadal is in this episode
• The invented Dara character appears, inserted into the story to give someone for Ciri to play off of in her flight (initially he was absent from the script)--he'll survive at least as long as Brokilon (episode four)
• TRI spends a lot of time wondering how "Lesser Evil" (known to be adapted in the first episode) can coexist with the above, but I believe they are overthinking it and that it will form the spine of Geralt's arc in that episode while Ciri/Yenenfer are doing their own thing (she apparently begins as a rebellious child, which fits her character very well)
• I mentioned in my original post that I thought IMDB was incorrect about Stregobor (from "Lesser Evil") appearing in all episodes, but TRI say he'll be a teacher at Aretuza for Yennefer's backstory, suggesting a much larger role (indeed, it wouldn't surprise me if we get more backstory or repercussions from "Lesser Evil" in Aretuza); TRI says that Istredd will be one of Stregobor's students
• Episode three will have Yennefer make a scene after her transformation at a ball where she interacts with King Virfuril (and from this, it follows, she gets or takes her job for Queen Kalis)
• Not surprisingly, Yennefer and Geralt's first meeting will change--rather than the scene in "The Last Wish" (whose narrative is being adapted), they will meet earlier. From the scene shown in the trailer it appears as though it will be via the Belletyn scene from "Something More"
• Jaskier will be part of "A Question of Price" (episode four), which is a show-introduced element (again, synergizing/simplifying the paths of the various characters)
• Ciri's vision sequences (connected to her time with the dryads in "Sword of Destiny") will be in episode four, which also adapts "A Question of Price," and will feature the end of the show-created storyline involving Yennefer protecting Queen Kalis and her baby
• They believe that the elements of "Something More" which set Geralt after Ciri will occur in episode seven (as Eist and Calanthe are both present in it); because of that they think Geralt's arc prior will be set in the past while Ciri remains in the present--this is plausible, but not required for the plot to move forward (if they are right, there will be a great deal of text saying "X years ago" in transitions between characters)

How does this mesh with our overall idea of layout of the show? (I've included what collection the stories come from with acronyms below, The Last Wish is TLW, Sword of Destiny is SOD; when there's no acronym it's assumed to be show-original, or mostly so.)

• Episode One - "The Lesser Evil" (TLW)/Ciri's origin and the Fall of Cintra (part of "Something More" (SOD))/Yennefer backstory as a hunchback starting at the age of 14
• Episode Two - "The Edge of the World" (TLW), which will presumably be the show's introduction of Jaskier/Ciri on the run/Yennefer at Aretuza (likely meeting Istredd)
• Episode Three - "The Witcher" (TLW)/Ciri on the run with Dara/Yennefer's transformation and the beginning of her Queen Kalis story
• Episode Four - "A Question of Price" (TLW)/Ciri in Brokilon ("Sword of Destiny" (SOD)/completion of Yennefer's Queen Kalis story--possibly the first episode where she meets Geralt, but that might be in the next
• Episode Five - "The Last Wish" (TLW)/uncertain Ciri storyline--presumably she'll have met or will meet Geralt in Brokilon ("Sword of Destiny" (SOD)), but to what end is uncertain
• Episode Six - "The Bounds of Reason" (SOD)/uncertain Ciri storyline
• Episode Seven - "A Question of Price" (TLW) and elements of "Something More" (SOD)
• Episode Eight - More of "Something More" (SOD)/The Battle of Sodden/Ciri and Geralt reunite

I haven't read Season of Storms (the prequel), nor has TRI spent much time going into elements from it they expect, so it's hard to sprinkle those above. One other note we have is that Vilgefortz will appear in two episodes, one of which is definitely Episode Eight, with IMBD also saying Seven (which makes sense).

My guess is that Yennefer's storyline will tie-in with Renfri and Ciri--children of prophecy--before merging with Geralt's. I'm less clear on what Ciri's will be like--Dara will presumably fill the generic 'lower class' role so that Ciri understands her privilege before Dara dies or is fobbed off to story oblivion.

Momentum

So how excited are people now versus when the teaser dropped back in July? In roughly two weeks 12 million people have seen the trailer against the 21 million for the latter, with the likes to dislikes continuing to be very different (rounding 3.5% vs 14.5%). There's no discernible difference in people signing up to the subreddit (which is of dubious value), and in terms of 'reaction' and 'review' videos there's much less impact from the current trailer (you could argue controversial trailers create more secondary content)--a couple of comparison's just to make the point: Angry Joe's is 283k vs 630k, Charlie Schneider's 251k vs 434k, Grace Randolph's 149k vs 235k, etc. Do these numbers mean anything? To me what it says is that people turned off by the teaser have mostly not come back, but people who weren't (or kept an open mind) have had their hype re-affirmed. All that is to say, I don't know that the trailer specifically added momentum/hype for the show, but it avoided doing additional damage.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Witcher News Update

What a difference a few months, better editing, and an intelligent marketing response to criticism can make. The first full trailer for The Witcher is excellent and the response to it has been accordingly positive (3% dislikes vs almost 15% for the teaser). Before I go into my observations, I want to point out what isn't in it.

As I went through in my original post, the teaser received a lot of criticism for its casting (it was almost surreal how few people realized which actress was playing Triss). Since then, Netflix and showrunner Lauren Hissrich have carefully avoided having that conversation. What we didn't see in the trailer were the race-swapped characters (Mimi Ndiweni's Fringilla being the exception)--even the other sorceresses were barely shown (it's not clear if Hissrich completely rejects Sapkowski's idea that nearly all of them take on unearthly beauty or if there's another reason behind her approach of normalizing their appearance). This absence matches what's happened at conventions as well (only the three leads are presented and the topic is narrowed down to why Cavill and Allan were cast, a debate virtually no one is having). Other than Hissrich occasionally arguing with people on social media, you'd be forgiven if you were completely unaware of the controversy (for those who want a deep dive on the issue, I go through it here).

Legitimate complaints could be made that the show is hiding those changes (something that should bother those who support Netflix/Hissrich's approach to diversity/the male gaze), but as a way of dodging the issue it's brilliant. Even how Anya Chalotra's Yennefer is portrayed in the trailer carefully avoids scenes of her pre-transformation, mollifying the backlash against her how little she looks like Yennefer's book descriptions (more on that below).

Unrelated to the backlash, there's a concerning absence in both the teaser and trailer: we've had no dialogue or music from Joey Batey's Jaskier (aka Dandelion), and I worry that he's being hidden. I have to wonder, given Hissrich's politics, if the lovable cad/rake offends her sensibilities. I hope not, as Dandelion's hilarious self-importance and foibles with women are the reason he's so entertaining.

Another notable change from the teaser, that seems to be in response to fan reactions, is a focus on Geralt. There was a lot of emphasis on multiple POV's initially, but the trailer works hard to emphasize that this is Geralt's story. The framing of the show's plot in general is also handled better (I saw confused reactions after the teaser dropped).

More generally, the special effects are cleaned-up (Geralt's look when using potions is improved), and there was a great deal more action scenes. I'm not a fan of the CGI ghouls (they looked like PS3 monsters).

Casting

As time has gone on I've come to appreciate why someone like Chalotra was picked as Yennefer. Choosing a young actress who can pass as an unattractive, deformed woman via makeup and prosthetic's isn't easy, but the same inexpensive approach covers the other end of Yennefer's look (so you get someone who can do both beautiful and unattractive convincingly). In many ways this matches the logic of Freya Allan's casting when it comes to age (as I went through in my previous post)--it streamlines what you need for the character in the altered timeline and approach.

With help from the lovely folks at The Redanian Intelligence, here are a few more things that stood out to me from the trailer:

• Geralt will fight in the Sack of Cintra (which TRI now believes will be in the first episode instead of the third and that Fringilla will be involved--I'm not entirely clear how that will work if she's also at the school in Aretuza, unless all of Yennefer's backstory is in flashbacks); if they are right, this is a change from the books, but makes a lot of sense with an aged up Ciri and what they want to do with that story
• Jodhi May's Queen Calanthe still looks a bit ridiculous fighting in armour and I think I've realized what it is--her helmet doesn't fit her properly, so it's slightly askew
• There's a bridge shot that reminds me of the bridge to Kaer Trolde in Skellige, but I assume that's just a coincidence

It was amusing that Charlie Schneider mistakenly called Adam Levy's Mousesack (aka Ermion) Vesemir, as Geralt's teacher doesn't appear in this season as far as we know. The trailer confirmed the scoop from months ago that said the show would air on December 20th. I'm not sure how the metrics work for something released that close to Christmas--it seems odd to me--but clearly Netflix believes it's a good time for it.

One of the interesting things about the evolution of The Witcher on Netflix is the shift in marketing. Initially, and up until recently, the comparisons were always to Game of Thrones (eg here, here, and here). Those involved with the production didn't push back against this interpretation until recently. Suddenly the cast and crew can't help by deny the comparison. Why is that?

I think initially it was useful way to market the show--GOT is the only successful epic fantasy show thus far, so it's what you want to be associated with. However, with it about to air it's important to make sure viewers have the right expectations and there are three key differences that matter most to Netflix: 1) there's no clear antagonist (White Walkers or even the Game of Thrones itself), 2) the world is magic-heavy (as opposed to GOT's magic-light), 3) it doesn't have the same sprawling cast--even with the expansion of Yennefer and Ciri's roles, it's still a much more centralized narrative. I don't see this as a bad thing, but it is interesting that they've allowed over a year of misleading marketing.

A couple of interesting quotes via TRI; the first:

"Eleven months, from start to finish, creating this universe. It’s never enough time...."

This is an incredibly brief period of time to world-build for a show--it brings up images of ABC's The Inhumans, with its bizarre location choices and incongruous design decisions. Fortunately for the show, there's an ocean of material to borrow from, although it does explain the unfortunate Nilgardian armour.

And:

"The style in the show is mainly based on Gothic influences, from medieval to the times between the 1830s to the 1890s. We’re also influenced by high fashion, which Lauren loves. There are also ethnic eastern influences."

I have no idea what 'ethnic eastern' means--east where? Russia? China? Japan? East is a broad category and 'ethnic' is even broader. Beyond that, I'm not sure why 19th century designs were picked for a pseudo-Medieval world. The look, from what we've seen, seems fine, it's just...odd.

TRI has made a couple of tweaks to their expectations for how the story will play out (which I went through in the previous post) that I want to highlight:

• Bookkeeping: two episodes we saw no footage of in the teaser had scenes shown in the trailer (2 and 6)--the only episode without definitive footage shown now is 7
• Originally they thought the Sack (or Slaughter) of Cintra was in episode 3 (as mentioned above), but now TRI believes this occurs in episode 1--if correct that makes Ciri's escape arc earlier, as well as pushing Cahir's story forward from their original guess of episode 4

I do wonder what will happen to Ciri's story. If in season one Geralt is running around looking for her (or vice versa), do we really want to follow the book saga of Geralt doing the exact same thing for several more seasons? As I mentioned previously, I didn't care for Ciri's time with the Rats, so I hope we get an adjusted storyline that doesn't repeat them chasing each other around.

Sapkowski, in is infinite wisdom, said:

"I don’t care what is done to my character"

Apparently he's unaware of how completely this neuters his opinion on any adaptation of his work. It also undercuts Hissrich's constant references to his approval of changes she's made. In the same interview he quite ridiculously claimed his lawsuit against CDPR wasn't about the money, when that's exactly what he wants. It's amazing the legal wrangling has dragged on this long, but CDPR undoubtedly wants to maintain a relationship with him so is trying to persuade the old curmudgeon to settle rather than inevitably lose in court.

TRI looked at what they think the key themes are for the IP and how they they relate to what the show is doing. They identify five:
1. Destiny
In the books this is something most characters deny, but it is inexorable (albeit, interpreting it isn't perfect and people do horrible things trying to fulfill it); it's impossible to do a Witcher-related IP and not tackle destiny--it's brought up in both the teaser and the trailer (the tricky thing about it is making sure the nuance of its inevitability doesn't rob stories of their tension)
2. Monsters
This plays into the theme that something nonhuman isn't always monstrous--that behaviour dictates who is or isn't a monster; again, this is so tied in with the core of the IP it has to be addressed and as with the above it's explicitly brought up in both the teaser and trailer
3. Magic
Part & parcel of the IP, although here I don't think Sapkowski's vision of it is particularly deep (his main crux is that most can't conceive, which isn't the kind of thing that readers will universally bemoan); there's some vague sense that there's a price to be paid for using magic, but it's not very clear, so there's room for the show to make this more interesting (although there's no sign that they have as yet)
4. Politics and War
This would be what matches Game of Thrones the most and there's a lot of it in the books; we haven't, however, seen much teased by the show (not something easy to tease, admittedly), and it wouldn't surprise me if there's less emphasis on it and more on the core characters being affected by it, since Geralt is largely apolitical
5. Racism
A tangible element in the books, albeit the resonance of it (as far as I've read) is fairly weak--the best thus far is "Eternal Fire" where it's the focus; this limited impact is likely because even though Geralt is a mutant, he's far too dangerous and important to actually feel the full impact of racist attitudes; I have no idea how well the show will tackle this, but it has been brought up in both the teaser and trailer

TRI have reviewed how The Witcher-series came about from the beginning of its conception to present, and through that process have clarified a few things I was unaware of when I composed my original chronology. With that in mind, I wanted to update it (cutting out the observations from the original--they remain valid, but there's no need to repeat them here):

1986 - Andrzej Sapkowski's first Witcher-related story is published in Poland
1990 - The first short story collection (The Witcher) is published
1994 - The first novel (Blood of Elves) is published, which begins his pentalogy (ending in 1999)
1997 - Sapkowski sells the game rights to Metropolis Software, who do nothing with them
2001 - A Polish TV show based on the books airs and is derided for being awful
2007 - CD Project Red releases The Witcher video game (selling 300,000 copies its first year)
2008 - The first English editions of Sapkowski's books appear
2011 - The Witcher 2 is released to acclaim (selling 1.7 million copies its first year)
2013 - Sapkowski publishes his last novel of the series, Season of Storms
2015
(May) - Witcher 3 is a landmark video game (selling 20 million copies to date)
(November) - Platigue Images announces a film based on the books to be directed by Tomasz Baginski--this plan is pitched to Netflix
2017
(May) - Netflix VP Kelly Luegenbiehl turns the planned Witcher movie (based on "The Lesser Evil") into a TV-series
(December) - Lauren S. Hissrich is hired as the showrunner
2018
(September) - The scripts for the series are completed; Henry Cavill is announced as Geralt
(October) - The rest of the cast is announced and filming begins; the pilot echoed the original movie plan in being based on "The Lesser Evil" and that was filmed first--most, if not all, of that episode was completely re-shot (with an altered cast) at the end of production
2019
(April) - Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos tells investors the show will air in late 2019
(May) - Filming completes, including the re-shoots of the pilot
(July) - An insider says the show has quietly been renewed for two more seasons [just after I posted the second season was seemingly confirmed]

I wanted to wrap this up with a look at another of the upcoming fantasy series as a point of comparison. I hadn't looked into Amazon's The Wheel of Time when I wrote my initial article, not just because it wasn't the focus, but as someone who lost interest in the books before Brandon Sanderson finished the series (the Matt-Tuon shopping trip is one of the most excruciating things I've ever read), my level of interest was low. When I heard about the casting announcements, however, I decided to dig a little. Amazon managed to find a showrunner (Rafe Judkins) whose track record is even less remarkable than Hissrich's (his hiring seems to be CEO Jennifer Salke's idea--the same woman who cancelled a Conan series because she found the IP offensive). Given how expensive fantasy shows are, the choices to run them continue to be odd (HBO picked virtual nobodies for Game of Thrones, while Al Gough and Miles Millar, who ran The Shannara Chronicles, have far more bombs in their history than successes). None of the showrunners had a past that suggested success with the genre, although all four (David Benioff, Hissrich, Judkins, and Gough/Millar) had a past with comicbook properties. The implication seems to be a conflation by executives between the two, but while comics can have fantastical properties, they function very differently from works of epic fantasy. I also wonder if seeing what Judkins is doing encouraged HBO to put their Targaryen prequel back on the menu after passing on whatever Bryan Cogman (now part of the LOTR prequel) and Jane Goldman were planning for their shows (you have to wonder just how bad Goldman's pilot was for GOT to pull out after investing so much into the project).

Back to Judkins: given how tiny the fanbase is for WoT, I don't expect much reaction to the casting for the show (which has made no dent in social or entertainment media, much like the Shannara series; in fact, the show has made no impression anywhere)--it's clear the idea of verisimilitude or internal, logical consistency isn't important. It's crazy that they avoided casting any recognizable actors in key roles (what a contrast to The Lord of the Rings prequel in all respects). I can't help but think it will suffer the same ignoble fate of The Shannara Chronicles (Hissrich and/or Netflix understood that a big star gets people's attention). To me it looks like the cast of a CW show, which is a tiny audience to chase.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)