A new television series based on the best-selling books and video games “The Witcher” will be hitting Netflix on December 20th, but the first reviews are already coming in, and they are overwhelmingly positive.
In fact, some early reviewers are saying they liked it better than Game of Thrones, or at the very least, the fight scenes are better, which is still quite a compliment.
The witcher is a series of fantasy novels written by the Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. In the series, a mystical monster slayer named Geralt of Rivia goes on a variety of adventures in a fictional world called “The Continent.”
Sapkowski created a language for the series known as Elder Speech, which is loosely based on Welsh, English, French, Irish, Latin, among other languages.
Below are some of the short teasers and reviews that have been posted to Twitter.
https://twitter.com/wWarstu/status/1198156081291309056
Oh I will say this. The fight scenes in The Witcher make Game of Thrones fight scenes look like two drunks fighting outside a bar.
— Witcher Podcast (@witcherpodcast) November 24, 2019
Blown away by the action and visuals so far for Netflix's The Witcher. Seeing Geralt of Rivia's unique sword style brought to life onscreen is amazing. pic.twitter.com/5hGuiIaJ9B
— Jeffrey Harris (@Wheeljack83) November 26, 2019
Watching the screeners for @witchernetflix. I'll admit, as a huge fan of the books, I was a little worried, but @LHissrich has done a masterful job telling this story. It also helps that the cast is amazing! And Henry Cavill, just … wow. #TheWitcher pic.twitter.com/xdFnYtRN4j
— Will Franklin (@SeeWillTweet) November 23, 2019
In a recent interview with Comic Book, executive producer Tomek Baginski revealed that the first season will not be long enough to cover every story in the first Witcher book, which is titled “The Last Wish.”
The first book in the series is a collection of six short stories, so it can fit well into the television series format if done correctly. Baginski said that there are only eight episodes in the first season, which made it a bit more difficult to fit every story into the season.
The video games based on the book series have been very successful, and as of March 2018, they have sold over 33 million copies worldwide. There have also been comic books based on the novels. From 1993 to 1995, The Witcher was adapted into six comic books by Maciej Parowski, Bogusław Polch, and Sapkowski himself.
This is actually not the first time that a television series was based on The Witcher books. A 2001 film called “The Hexer” that was turned into a television series in 2002 was also based on the witcher.
However, these renditions were not well received by Sapkowski. This time, Sapkowski was hired as a creative consultant for the new television series, to ensure that the final product will be as authentic as possible.
It seems that fans of the original books can rest easy about having a proper representation of the story on Netflix. In the new Netflix rendition of the story, the main character, Geralt of Rivia, will be portrayed by Henry Cavill.
Schmidt Hissrich will be the executive producer and showrunner for the series. Hissrich is best known for her work writing and co-executive producing on The Defenders, Daredevil, and Power.
Sean Daniel is also listed as an executive producer on the team, along with with his partner Jason brown at the under the Sean Daniel Company. Tomek Baginski and Jarek Sawko of Platige Image are also listed as executive producers.
All 8 episodes will be available upon release, so you’ll be able to binge them all right away on December 20th.
You can watch the full trailer below, courtesy of Netflix:
You can't outrun destiny just because you're terrified of it. The Witcher arrives 20 December.
Posted by The Witcher Netflix on Thursday, October 31, 2019
