‘The Witcher’ Showrunner Says Netflix Series Will Never Adapt the Video Games

Comic-Con: Henry Cavill stars in fantasy series based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels

The Witcher
Netflix

Netflix’s “The Witcher” is best known in the U.S. for the series of role playing video games by CD Projekt Red rather than the fantasy novels by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski that inspired the games. But if the show ever moves past the story laid out in the books like “Game of Thrones” did, Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich says fans should definitely not expect it to mine the games for material.

“Extreme long vision is no, we will not start adapting the games,” Hissrich told TheWrap during a press round table at San Diego Comic-Con 2019. “I can only attack one season at a time, I’m so excited for this one, the rest kind of makes my mind explode right now. If someone says ‘what happens in Season 7,’ sure I have thoughts. Fingers crossed, we get there.”

The games, in case you’re not familiar, are a trilogy of stories that serves as a sequel to the books, picking up where they end and continuing the story of Geralt of Rivia, a famed monster hunter who keeps getting caught up in lots of major world events. So Hissrich is saying that regardless of whether “The Witcher” ever makes it past the stories told in the books, they won’t use the games as source material for further stories.

So now you know.

The show stars Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra, and Freya Allan, along with Jodhi May (“Game of Thrones,” “Genius”) as Calanthe, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson (“Fortitude”) as Eist, Adam Levy (“Knightfall,” “Snatch”) as Mousesack, MyAnna Buring (“Ripper Street,” “Kill List”) as Tissaia, Mimi Ndiweni (“Black Earth Rising”) as Fringilla, Therica Wilson-Read (“Profile”) as Sabrina, Emma Appleton (“The End of The F**king World”) as Renfri, Eamon Farren (“The ABC Murders,” “Twin Peaks”) as Cahir, Joey Batey (“Knightfall,” “Strike”) as Jaskier, Lars Mikkelsen (“House of Cards,” “Sherlock”) as Stregobor, Royce Pierreson (“Wanderlust,” “Judy”) as Istredd, Maciej Musiał (“1983”) as Sir Lazlo, Wilson Radjou-Pujalte (“Jamillah & Aladdin,” “Dickensian”) as Dara, and Anna Shaffer (“Harry Potter”) as Triss.

It premieres on Netflix later this year.

TheWrap is in San Diego all week for Comic-Con 2019 — check out all of our ongoing coverage here.

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