Fans of the immensely popular The Witcher series, rejoice! Not only is the TV show coming to Netflix in around a month, but it seems like its showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, will do everything she can to keep it running for six additional seasons. While no second season is currently in development, Hissrich says that her plans encompass a larger picture that will see the characters grow and develop beyond the scope of a single-season story.
Speaking in an interview with the SFX Magazine, Hissrich said, "We don’t have a second season yet – God willing we will – but right now it's just about, 'how do you set up stories that really capture audiences for years at a time?' The worst thing we could do is put all of our energies just into season one, and not be thinking about where these characters can grow to."
Set for release on December 20th, the first season of The Witcher will contain eight episodes. Hissrich's involvement with The Witcher was revealed back in December 2017, half a year after Netflix announced its intention to adapt the book series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The game, however, is considered "fan-fiction" of the books by the author due to the ways they differ -- and the games will definitely not be adapted to the show.
Speaking to GameSpot in July this year, Hissrich stated she would not adapt the games even if they ran out of book material for the TV show. In that interview, she already hinted at seven seasons: "I can only adapt one season at a time, and I'm so excited for this one, and the rest kind of makes my mind explode right now. If someone said to me, 'What happens in Season 7?' Like, sure, I have thoughts, you know--fingers crossed we get there."
Lauren Schmidt Hissrich has established her name through her work as co-executive producer on Netflix series Daredevil and The Defenders. She had actually initially refused to work on The Witcher due to its popularity, but changed her mind when Netflix asked her to offer her own vision of the story. To her, that story focuses largely on a strange, broken family. As she told SFX, "That really has been the theme of the first season: 'What makes a family? How does a family find each other? Why are they meant to be together?' People who may not think they are fantasy fans will come and find that they are."
However, the fact that she plans for more of the story does not necessarily mean that all characters will live to see it unfold. "I can't promise you that they're all very much alive,” she said, perhaps hinting at the fact that not everyone who dies in this universe remains dead, as evidenced by the number of necrophages, wights, zombies, and other monsters flooding the world.
But could the length of the series be its own undoing? After all, many are happy to compare it to Game of Thrones, the final season of which left fans disappointed, to say the least. However, the fact that there is enough source material for Netflix to work with for this show could also save it from meeting a similar fate.
Source: GamesRadar