The Witcher series of books are getting a Netflix adaptation, and lead that effort is producer and writer Lauren Hissrich. She is Geralt’s showrunner. Hissrich has previously executive produced Daredevil and The Defenders for Netflix, written episodes for both shows (and for The West Wing). Thanks to her Twitter feed, we can put together a few new tidbits about the show, how it’s shaping up, and which familiar characters we can expect to see. And yes, we’ll get the most important out of the way first: Roach is in.
Hissrich wrote brief descriptions of The Witcher’s major characters. Geralt is “stoic” but also “soft-and-squishy-in-a-tiny-place-in-his-heart-that-he’ll-never-reveal-until-maybe-the-end-and-even-then-it-will-just-be-a-hint.” Yennefer is fiery and proud; Triss Merigold is spunky and idealistic; Ciri resilient and relentless. We can also expect to see Jaskier (who we know as Dandelion in the English adaptations), Geralt’s vampire buddy Regis, Emperor Emhyr var Emreis, and some characters who aren’t in the games.
Those include Cahir, Vilgefortz, Milva, and witcher-killing bounty hunter Leo Bonhart. T
Hissrich pitched the main storylines of the first season to Netflix on December 13th, and posted an example of just how many revisions it took to get from outline to completed pilot. “On Feb 23rd, I finished the first draft of the pilot,” Hissrich tweeted. “It’s 78 pages, which is a little too long, but I’m not ready to cut anything else yet!”
This is what that writing process looked like:
I missed so many questions during my weekend away, but someone asked how long it takes to write a pilot. Here's my process on #TheWitcher, via my computer files — pic.twitter.com/zMEjdB4A3m
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) February 27, 2018
