The Witcher only consists of eight episodes, the fact that Andrzej Sapkowski has written eight books on the adventures of Geralt Of Rivia means that there are clearly many more stories left to tell.
Netflix clearly can’t wait to tell them, too, as they have already greenlit a second season of The Witcher, something that its showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich is clearly rather ecstatic about.
“I feel so incredibly lucky that I already know we get to tell a season two of this show,” she recently told Metro. “That’s the best news possible. Because it really allows us to dig into these stories and characters even more.”
Does that mean that the second season of The Witcher will be released in December, 2020, which would mark a full year after it debuted on Netflix?
“We’re not quite there schedule wise,” admits Hissrich. “But we have a really good sense of what we want season two to be, and that’s mapped out already.”
All that Hissrich would say is that these future episodes will be “fairly close to the books.” Although she made sure to point out that because “there are things that work on the page that don’t on screen” and there only “eight hours” for each season means that they can’t possibly “include every character and line of dialogue.”
“So we have to be very careful about what we are choosing to show. The most important thing is keeping the soul and spirit of the books. And having talked to writer Andrzej Sapkowski that’s what most exciting to him, too.”
But did Hissrich have an idea of how many seasons of The Witcher she wanted to make when she originally pitched the show to Netflix?
“No. I didn’t have those discussions at all. At the end of the day it wasn’t really up to me. It wasn’t really up to Netflix, too. It is up to who turns up and watches the show and enjoys it. If we make a product that no-one likes we’ll just have to move on. That’s part of making entertainment. But even if there is just one season, the stories still have to be fulfilling. You have to feel like you’ve told a complete story at the end of it. I don’t think we’re in that situation here. I am really proud of the work we’ve done.”
So proud in fact that Hissrich made it perfectly clear that she wants to work on The Witcher for many, many more seasons to come.
“I would keep writing it for as long as I possibly could and for as long as the source material sustains. As a creator, when you start a show, you always have to think big. You can’t do it in a vacuum. You have to think how these stories you’re setting down in season one are gonna play out in seasons 2, 3, 7 or 14. You hope that you’re gonna get that far.”
“I am a television writer through and through, it is all I have ever done for the last 20 years now. What I love is perpetual storytelling. Storytelling that is fulfilling in and of itself, but can also lead to something else. So at this point I am looking forward to just continuing to tell these stories.”
