What Can We Expect From Netflix’s Witcher Series | A Primer
It’s been known for some time that Netflix is moving ahead with a TV show based on The Witcher, and while fans of the books or the PC/Console games may well be excited by this prospect, a lot of other potential viewers have likely hardly even heard of it.
This could well be a serious Game of Thrones contender and a real rival for Amazon’s super expensive upcoming Lord of the Rings show. I had heard people raving about the Witcher video games before, but I wasn’t sure a deep RPG-type game was for me, I was wrong. I was looking for something different to try and many friends had said I would like RPG games, keeping up with video game news, I already knew that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was considered one of the greatest games of this generation. I, therefore, decided to pick up a cheap “Game of the Year” edition which has all extra DLC included. This was around early January, I don’t game much, but since that day, the only game I have been playing is this and I’m still not finished yet. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the best game I have played on the current generation of consoles.
So I guess I became intrigued to find out more about the story at large and interested suddenly in the TV show coming from Netflix.
Scripts have been written for the show, but no casting has taken place yet, it’s therefore unlikely we would see this hit the streaming service until 2019, at the earliest.
The Source Material
The Witcher universe is based on a series of novels and story collections by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. These were written in his native Polish starting in the ’80s. Since then Sapkowski has written many more stories and started rewriting them all in English several years ago now. The books themselves had initially taken on a bit of a cult following and probably never got the exposure of other titles by not being initially written in English, which as we know remains the dominant language for entertainment. The tremendous success of the video games made by Polish studio CD Projekt Red (CDPR), however, has really increased the popularity and demand for the books.
We then have the three video games themselves made by CDPR to consider. These games were written as almost sequels to the novels rather than adaptations of them and they reference the same history and characters as the novels do. As of right now, the games that make up the series are The Witcher, The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
While I have not yet had the time to read the novels, I have tried to research the roots of these stories and the makeup of this universe. The game I played is really designed as the end of the story, but it also does a really good job of getting you invested in the backstory of these characters. So for any mega fans out there, please feel free to forgive and correct any mistakes I make here as a bit of a noob to this franchise.
The Genre and the Universe
It’s definitely high fantasy as you will see from the small video game cinematic video above, but with more mature and realistic people in it, so if I had to use Tolkien’s work as one end of the spectrum and GRR Martin’s work as the opposite end of the spectrum I would say The Witcher falls somewhere in the middle, but closer to the work of the latter rather than the former. The universe is complicated so I will try and give a brief summary.
There was a planet somewhere which housed several sentient species such as Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and some other creatures. Thousands of years ago there was a massive interdimensional rift which they call the Conjunction of the Spheres. This event meant other dimensional planes crossed over with one another in strange ways. As a result, many species who were not native to this planet were deposited there and stranded. Many of these beings were ferocious non-sentient creatures, but there were sentient beings like Vampires also and the worst of them all…Humans. Yep, we Humans are at it again and since we breed faster than any of the native races, it’s not long before we dominate this world and push back and marginalize these Elder races. By the time of the stories, Humans control the whole world and have committed various racial atrocities against the Elder races. The world is split into various countries which are reminiscent of medieval Europe and just like home, we don’t seem to get along very well. The countries much like the houses in Game of Thrones are always trying to get one up on each other to vie for complete control.
The stories take place mostly in the Northern Realms where ever the threat is to the south from the massive Niilfgard Empire. Niilfgard is like the Rome of this world and they seem intent to conquer all the lands they can find. There is almost a constant state of war at one time or another between the various factions.
What is a Witcher?
I find the origin of Witchers to have similar themes to those of Spartan origins in the Halo series if any readers are familiar with that story. Witchers are an order of Human who recruit young male children from whoever they can get them either as payment or through neglect. After some rigorous training, these boys are subjected to a series of mutations called the Trial of the Grasses which only 3/10 boys will survive. If they survive, the body changes to have special abilities beyond normal humans, these include strength, agility, resistance to pain, resistance to toxins and diseases, and advanced eyesight and hearing. A Witcher’s place is to travel through all the lands looking for contract work, paid for by simply gold, or other trades and codes of conduct. The work is usually tracking and killing ferocious non-sentient monsters, though some Witcher’s have been known to investigate mysteries, lift curses and even take on Higher Vampires on occasion. A Witcher would never normally involve themselves in politics or any kind of groups, preferring to drift from place to place looking for fair pay for fair work. There will always be those that try to use a Witcher to further their own interests or try to fool a Witcher into working for free, but most come to understand that crossing a Witcher is not the smartest thing to do. It’s also worth noting that Witchers heal faster, live a very long time/age very slowly and are also infertile.
Turn to page 2 for more information about The Witcher.
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The Story & Potential
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The Story
The video above is the opening cinematic of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which can help give you a feel for things. There are a lot of different characters and threads running through these tales, but I will try to give you the gist of the main narrative running through this series of stories.
The main character is a Witcher called Geralt of Rivia, who has a slightly unusual backstory compared to most Witchers. First of all, his mother was a sorceress and willingly gave Geralt to the Wolven Witcher school as an infant. Geralt also showed an incredibly high tolerance during the Trail of the Grasses and was therefore subject to even more experimental mutations no other Witcher could survive. This basically makes Geralt the best of the best when it comes to Witchers, though it also left with with pale white hair, earning him the nickname The White Wolf. After training for years under his mentor Vesimir, Geralt left his training and home to go out and walk the path, i.e. start looking for Witcher work.
Geralt, while never looking for it, seems to end up embroiled in all sorts of epic and momentous events and eventually falls for a sorceress called Yennefer of Vengeburg. Geralt manages to get them linked with a magical bond that means they will always be caught up in one another’s destinies. Geralt also makes many other friends and enemies and the shape of the world he lives in changes around him. Often Geralt is put in positions where his moral choices help shape the larger events he really doesn’t want to be involved in.
Many years ago, an Elven Queen with fantastic powers fell in love with a Human, something unthinkable between the racial barriers and hate towards each other. The Elder blood line from this union is a powerful MacGuffin in this history and becomes entwined with Geralt’s story. After saving a princess Geralt is offered a reward and invokes the Law of Surprise, something Witchers use to recruit young boys to their ranks. The law states that the Witcher be given whatever the client did not expect when they return home. In this instance the princess is with child and this child is a female, she has a rather large full name, but she is known as Ciri. Geralt initially rejects Ciri for being female as Witchers are male only. But after their paths cross for the third time Geralt comes to the realisation that Ciri is linked to his destiny, he adopts the child as his own and Yenneffer becomes her adopted mother. They teach her how to fight and use magic from both their expertises and find out that Ciri has some very special abilities. You guessed it Ciri is a descendant of this Elder bloodline and starts to manifest evidence of having the abilities of her ancestors.
This sparks a series of attempts for people in positions of power to attempt to coerce, control or even kidnap and forcibly impregnate young Ciri. Luckily, she has the best Witcher in the land as a father and a powerful sorceress as a mother. But even Geralt and Yennefer despite all their skills may struggle to protect Ciri from a world that wants to use her powers. And not only that, but Ciri’s abilities allow her to travel between different worlds in alternate dimensions and this has attracted interest from elsewhere. A major force of strife in Ciri’s life is her biological father, the once disguised and thought dead Duny, turns out to be Emyr, the Emperor of all Niilfgard and the most powerful Human on this planet.
There are some themes here which on first glance scream at a Tolkien influence, but at the same time this is a land with prostitution, murderous villains, pious genocidal priests, drunks, junkies and hungry starving kids who are sacrificed to old dark spirits. Which I think you’ll agree seems more in GRR Martin territory?
Geralt is a lover, a warrior, a father and a detective and I think my most enjoyable aspect of the game was playing crime scene investigator whilst using Geralt’s super senses.
The Potential
Above is a little bit of fan casting from me, Nicolaj Coster Waldau as Geralt of Rivia. He’d be perfect for it once he finishes this final season of Game of Thrones, don’t you think?
Ultimately in the right hands this could be Netflix answer to both Amazon’s Lord of the Rings and HBO’s Game of Thrones, as it straddles the lines perfectly and anyone who has played the games will be able to see the potential here for something truly epic. Of course, it’s all in the execution and the writing, anyone remember a film called The Hexer some years ago? That was an attempt to adapt these stories into a movie and it failed miserably on all fronts. It’s remarkable at times how some writers and studios are able to take a great story and somehow destroy it!
If Netflix get the story for this all planned out well, we could have a mega hit on our hands, or we could get another version of The Hexer, it remains to be seen, but I have faith in Netflix to get this right. So does the author, Sapkowski himself has been brought on board as a consultant to the show and is said to be very pleased with the finished scripts so far.
It’s also worth noting that the showrunners have stated they are adapting the books for this show and not the video games and this does make sense because those games and the story within are hugely popular and would definitely prove problematic to adapt and I do believe there are some conflicts in story as both the books and the games veered off in slightly different directions as well.
If you have a spare 200 + hours this year at any point (don’t have to rush it) why not give The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt a chance, it’s frankly a masterpiece and like me you may just become totally hooked on the world of The Witcher. Its available on Xbox One, PS4 or PC and it has won countless Game of the Year prizes since its release in 2015.
Stay tuned to LRM for any updates about the upcoming Netflix show as we find them out, and as always please feel free to leave your thoughts in the usual place below.
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The Source Material & Universe
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