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Netflix’s The Witcher is more ‘grounded horror’ than fantasy

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Netflix’s live-action adaption of The Witcher novels will lean more towards horror elements than fantasy according to the show’s writers.

Fans of CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher games and Andrzej Zapowski’s novels will be thrilled at this morning’s (Nov 7th) revelations. The showrunner and creator of the upcoming Netflix show Lauren S. Hissrich has claimed that she’s eager to adapt all seven of Zapowski’s Witcher volumes in their entirety.

Hissrich is banking on the show being renewed far beyond season one, stating in an interview with SFX: ‘The worst thing we could do is put all of our energies just into one season, and not be thinking about where these characters can go’. After much speculation fantasy enthusiasts can relax knowing that key historical and political rudiments won’t be shoehorned in for brief moments of contextual clarity.

We’re set for a steady paced, grounded homage to the books and not just an action-packed romp through the Northern Realms.

Excluding the spicy pile of garbage that was Game of Thrones’ final season, fantasy TV has been all the rage in recent times. And the next few months will draw even larger audiences to the genre, with adaptions for Lord of the Rings, The Dark Tower, and The Wheel of Time all in the pipeline for late 2019 to early 2020.

Netflix’s take on The Witcher offers a disparate take on the genre, instead harkening to hide-under-the-pillow moments from shows like Supernatural. If you’ve read or played anything related to The Witcher, you’ll know that the reimagined medieval continent is brimming with some of the most terrifying beasts imaginable (with some seriously grim lore behind them) and Geralt’s task of slashing through them like a medieval gig-economy worker ain’t no fantastical picnic.

There’s also the matter of logistics that have skewed the production towards a more horror-esque approach. In the source materials the Nilfgaardian armies, which play a big part in the politics throughout, are tens-of-thousands strong in number and Lauren S. Hissrich concedes that they ‘physically can’t exist on set’.

Obviously, CGI can contribute to bulking up the Nilf numbers, but in the show’s first season it would be too ambitious (and would put a little too much strain on the purse strings) to focus predominantly on the military angle. The showrunners thus seem to have decided to focus more heavily on singular or small-scale horror threats. If you can call a car sized spider that.

Personally, I’m pretty chuffed with the show makers’ decision to focus on horror. The plethora of nightmarish enemies, from wraiths and dryads, to arachnomorphs and leshens, would feel underplayed if they went the route of traditional politico/fantasy. Even with a potential seven seasons, there’s a huge bestiary to get through, and speaking from experience each incarnation takes some serious work to put down.

For those who’re fully over spending December watching Home Alone or The Grinch for the 1000th time, The Witcher season 1 is dropping on the 20th December – an early Christmas present.

Senior Writer London, UK

I’m Jamie (He/Him), the Editor in Chief at Thred. Keeping up with gaming and revolutionary technology is my forte, but when away from my keyboard, you’ll probably find me wrapped around a large Tango ice blast at the latest mediocre horror flick. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

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