With just about any book to TV/movie adaptation, changes to how that product is translated to a new audience are expected, and The Witcher series on Netflix is no exception.
The Witcher made its debut in 2019 and at least for its first season, it was receiving solid reviews across social media. Leading the charge of this adaptation was Henry Cavill playing the role of Geralt of Rivia. This was a dream job for Cavill being a big fan of not only The Witcher novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski but also the The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt video game from CD Projekt RED.
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Sadly, after three seasons due to reported creative differences with the Netflix showrunners, Henry Cavill will no longer be part of The Witcher with Liam Hemsworth being cast as the new Geralt from season four. Whether Liam Hemsworth can fill the void that Henry Cavill leaves behind, remains to be seen.
However, one of the creative differences that may have annoyed Henry Cavill is reports of the Netflix series being 'dumbed down' for Americans. Hey, those are the words of series producer Tomasz Bagiński, not ours. That being said, I think it’s fair to say that the series wouldn't have been 'dumbed down' for one nation in particular, but its audience as a whole.
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As reported by GamesRadar (via Redanian Intelligence), during an interview with Wyborcza, Bagiński opened up about the series not remaining entirely faithful to the source material. Bagiński explained that the reason why a lot of changes were made, was to make it simpler to process for the audience.
“When I presented Hardkor 44 [a variation on the Warsaw Uprising] abroad years ago and tried to explain: there was an uprising against Germany, but the Russians were across the river, and on the German side there were also soldiers from Hungary or Ukraine,” said Bagiński. “For Americans, it was completely incomprehensible, too complicated, because they grew up in a different historical context, where everything was arranged: America is always good, the rest are the bad guys. And there are no complications.”
Personally, I think that’s a bit of a poor excuse as to why the Netflix adaptation made so many changes or at the very least, it was a poor choice of words used by Tomasz Bagiński.
No release date has been announced for season four of The Witcher, but due to the recent WGA strikes, we can expect it to arrive on Netflix sometime in 2025.
Topics: The Witcher, The Witcher 3, CD Projekt Red, TV And Film, Netflix