Here's What We Know About 'The Witcher' Season 2
Christmas week was a bonanza of content for nerds of all stripes. Between Disney+'s The Mandalorian and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, there was plenty of a galaxy far, far away. And for those who prefer swords, monsters, and fantasy creatures, The Witcher arrived on Netflix. The series got tons of love on Twitter over the first five days of its release, with many asking for more. So, will The Witcher get a Season 2? The showrunner has plans for where the story is going next.
The idea of a Witcher TV series had fantasy fans nervous at first. The franchise has a long history, starting in the mid-1980s as short stories from Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. Those tales centered on Geralt, a mutant "Witcher" who fought creatures out of Eastern European fairy tales, some of which were retellings of stories from the Brothers Grimm.
But then, in the 1990s, fantasy changed with a new emphasis on female characters and multi-volume novels. Sapkowski's stories morphed into a tale of Geralt saving Princess Ciri, the Lion Cub of Cintra. Ciri begins training in the magic arts under sorceresses, including her mentor Yennefer of Vengerberg, Geralt's soulmate.
Taking both threads and making them work together in one show would be hard enough. But then, in 2007, The Witcher was made into a successful brand of video games. That meant the show had three distinct subgroups to please: Those who loved the short stories, those who loved the novels, and those who expected a lot of Witcher v. Monster action.
The series divides the story into three timelines: Yennefer's education in magic that will lead her to becoming Ciri's mentor, Geralt's monster-hunting years before he becomes involved with Ciri, and Princess Ciri's original exile before she meets Geralt. It was a clever way to please everyone, but it also kept the three main characters apart until over halfway through Season 1.
According to showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, Season 2 will begin to streamline the story more. Speaking to GamesRadar+, she said:
What’s great about Season 2, I can tell you, is that, in what we’ve written, the story becomes much more focused. There’s a stronger drive... because all of the relationships that we’ve been setting up in Season 1, actually start to come into fruition in Season 2. Characters start meeting and interacting more. That goes well sometimes. It doesn’t go well sometimes. But it’s kind of like, all of those building blocks that we set up for the world, finally start to come together into something a little more concrete.
Hissrich joked before the show's launch that The Witcher could go 20 seasons or more. That might be a bit much, but the show has scored a major feat in transferring the entire franchise successfully to the small screen. For that, it deserves at least a few more seasons.
