MANILA, Philippines — The Witcher is now streaming on Netflix, introducing audiences to a vast, new fantasy world of sorcery, epic battles and superhuman monster-slayers called witchers. The person primarily responsible for making this series happen is Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who previously wrote and produced such Netflix shows as Daredevil, The Defenders and The Umbrella Academy.
This is the first time that Lauren serves not only as the writer and executive producer, but the showrunner no less of the adaptation of The Witcher Saga, the dark-fantasy novels and short stories created by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which also spawned a popular video game series.
Lauren and British star Henry Cavill, who plays the lead character Geralt of Rivia a.k.a. The Witcher, were in Manila recently for a fan meet and media interviews as part of a promotional world tour for the show.
According to Lauren, it took her more than two years to realize this project, undoubtedly her most ambitious yet in her entire career as a successful TV writer/producer. The book series was the “sole source material” for the show, she said. “We knew we wanted to start with the Last Wish which was the first collection of short stories, because to me they’re kind of the foundation of the entire world where you meet the girls (female lead characters), you understand the role of the witchers and how they fight monsters, but you also learn about the politics of the world, all of the various kingdoms, all of the various players that form this really complicated Continent.”
Spoiler alert: Fans of the books, as well as the videogames, might wonder why The Witcher series launches into three overlapping timelines that show the origin story of the powerful sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra); Geralt (Henry Cavill) hunting down monsters; and princess with a “dangerous secret” Ciri (Freya Allan) on the run. In a roundtable interview, Lauren explained that she chose to tell the story this way because she wanted to give Yennefer and Ciri a foundation and “grow them so that they can be as multi-dimensional and as layered as Geralt.”
She added that she was heavily influenced by Christopher Nolan’s war film Dunkirk, which also tells a story through three concurrent timelines. “It can also be confusing but here’s the thing. I think audiences are incredibly smart. I think that they are willing to go, huh, something’s going on here, I’m not quite sure what yet, but I’m going to hang in and figure it out, and it’s my hope that episode one is enjoyable no matter what.”
Lauren also discussed her experience of running a show that’s being touted as the fantasy series that’s going to fill the Game of Thrones void. Here are the excerpts:
On being the showrunner of The Witcher:
“You know, it’s an experience that nothing can quite prepare you for and yet, my entire career has prepared me for. What I mean by that is, I have served in so many different capacities. I started out in my first show, The West Wing, as an unpaid intern. And I sort of progressed up the ladder as a production assistant, a writer’s assistant, I got coffee, I answered phones, I took notes in the writers’ room and I started to pay attention to how my bosses told stories and started to write scripts on my own.
“So, as soon as I did that, I started asking about (things) onset. I wanted to understand after we wrote what started happening on set, how to talk to directors, how to talk to actors, and what works on a page doesn’t necessarily mean that it works on stage. Then, I started asking to be part of the post-production process to sort of see, okay, we shoot 18-day episodes and we shoot for 10 hours a day. So, 180 hours of film go into one hour of the show, so what do we leave on the cutting room floor, what do we take?
“All of these lessons that I’ve learned over my career have prepared me to actually do this job. What I couldn’t be prepared for is sort of the emotional part of it. I have never been so proud of a work project in my life! And it is, as I said in some other cities recently like Los Angeles, which is where I live, and I got teary up on stage. I’ve been working on The Witcher for two and a half years and it has been my sole focus and drive to the detriment of many other things, and to reach that point where the world is about to see it — nothing could have prepared me for that.”
On the main attraction of The Witcher that made her decide to take on the project:
“The main attraction to me was the family at the center of it all, which obviously are the female characters (Yennefer and Ciri), but also Geralt, you know, The Witcher. What I’ve loved and what I really responded to was the fact that these three people are wandering across this Continent. Each in their own specific dramas. Each dealing with the pain of family that they’ve lost or family that has abandoned them and each feeling like they don’t quite belong. And you see them go on all of their adventures, we see them succeed, we see them fail, and what stays the same is that they each believe that they need to know what they are finding out there on their own.
“And then destiny intervenes, and they realize that maybe they aren’t at their best on their own, maybe they actually do meet someone. And this family starts to come together. That is the biggest thing that I related to. What I was surprised to find is just how much I liked writing monsters and magic as well. Those are things that I had no experience with whatsoever. And, you know, we’re a bit like... don’t take it, at first, the idea of taking on this big of a fantasy world. But that’s actually the fun. I call them the sort of fantasy bells and whistles. If you ground a story and character, then you can start adding in all the fun stuff and it becomes a really sort of full picture.”
On The Witcher as a fantasy series to watch post-Game of Thrones:
“You know, I think that I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Game of Thrones. Because I do think it changed fantasy for television. I think there was a point at which fantasy was considered a genre for a very small group of people, the nerds and geeks of the world, yes it was just for them. And what Game of Thrones did and said, absolutely not! Fantasy is a reflection of our real world, and what all people are walking through in different ways.
“And I was a huge fan of Game of Thrones and I wouldn’t have considered myself a huge fantasy fan, which is why I came to this project and why I think this project can also do for the world. I think that audiences everywhere are able to relate to these characters and relate to how they will walk through the Continent. And I just think that’s hopefully why it will have that same kind of success is because it is relatable to people from all over the world. I think, if you tell a good story about relatable characters who are flawed and who are good at heart, then people will want to watch.”