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
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)
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