After seeing quite a bit of expansion, the world of Witcher is now in a crisis mode. Ever since Witcher Season 2 ended, things haven’t been going Netflix’ way. Firstly, there was a huge backlash when fans came to know writers didn’t respect the source material. Then there was the whole Henry Cavill exit debacle which literally broke the faith and interest of most of the fans. What little bit hype remained was shattered by the extremely disappointing and poor The Witcher: Blood Origin. So with the a highly negative atmosphere around the franchise, producers have stepped up to clarify a thing or two. But beware, their clarification may further disappoint you if you are books/games fan.
The Witcher Season 3 Have Never Seen Before or Read Before Lore
If you were disappointed when Witcher Season 2 drifted too much from the source material, be ready to be disappointed further. While talking to ScreenRant, The Witcher‘s VFX Supervisor Sébastien Francoeur and producer Graeme Marshall stated, “We’re in the throes of delivering the final couple of episodes on [Season 3], and it’s super cool. I don’t think it’s anything that anyone’s read or seen before in Witcher lore, so I think it’s gonna be exciting.“ They also teased new kinds of monsters, magic spells, and lore which fans haven’t seen or read before.
Although they stated that, “They were very careful about keeping it true to the lore, true to the realm, true to the Witcher“ but at the same time Graeme Marshal clarified that, “It’s like the novels are the guidebook, but not the Bible by any means.“ So, it is pretty clear that this season too will not follow the source material closely but will instead try to do its own thing while staying relevant to the lore. They further stated that it is also not going to be anything like the video games and that makes sense as its already been done in an epic way and needs no remake. What bothers me though is that the books are pretty amazing and have more than enough awesome content that all the fans wanted to experience being translated to visuals. But it is clear that there will be a lot of changes and original content which may or may not work well.
“I feel like this is where they’re separate from the video game or separate from the books is kind of allowing them to explore other storylines and other places and things like that. I think that’s working well for them so far. It’s different from watching a show like The Last of Us, in which the first episode is the beginning of the video game. Whereas with this, I think there’s a lot of creative license to stay similar and true to certain parts and enable them to explore different parts as well.“ Francoeur and Marshall stated. So, once again, even though they are the VFX producers, it is pretty clear that Netflix will continue to explore the universe creatively rather being being restricted by the source material.
While Henry Cavill and many fans have parted ways from Netflix’ Witcher Saga, there is a chance that non-readers and non-gamers might continue to support the franchise. Although Season 2 was largely disliked by fans, casual viewers and series fans seemed to enjoy it, so a slight hope still exists. Although they too might drift away after Season 3 as most of them were watching it for Henry Cavill. Talking about The Witcher Season 4 which will be led by Liam Hemsworth, producers stated, “As far as season 4 is concerned, we haven’t really gotten too heavily involved just yet.”
So, while a year ago, Netflix was confident enough to launch over 7 seasons of The Witcher and a thousand spin-offs, it seems like their spirits are being shaken a bit too. All they, as well as the fans, can hope for is that Season 3 works well and even if it drifts away from books, it presents a compelling narrative. What are your thoughts on these latest updates? Do let us know in the comments!
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I just want to find a way to support Henry Cavill and completely distance myself from anything that these writers have done on the show.