Netflix's 'The Witcher' isn't just about Geralt. Make way for Yennefer and Ciri.
If you've read or played The Witcher series, you've spent a lot of time with Geralt of Rivia.
A large chunk of Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski's '90s book series, the comic book adaptation, and subsequent video game series gives the limelight to the titular witcher, played by Henry Cavill in the upcoming adaptation.
But Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, showrunner for Netflix's The Witcher, wanted to bring the storylines of the series' female leads — Princess Cirilla of Sintra, or Ciri, and the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (played by relative newcomers Freya Allan and Anya Chalotra, respectively) — to the fore.
Allan, who plays Ciri, spoke to Mashable of the impact of balancing out The Witcher's storylines — it's not all about Geralt this time.
"I think it's really important that you get to see their stories independent of Geralt's," said Allan.
"Because you get to see what shapes them and it's not in any way that we're just there to aid Geralt's storyline. I think that's hugely important that you get to see where these characters originated, and the people that shaped who they are now, and without that being, you know, immediately with three characters together."
"They're survivors, Ciri and Yennefer," added Chalotra, who plays the sorceress.
"And to show how they get up from falling shows their strength of character. I think that's what makes them strong is the choices they make."
Yennefer's character, in particular, goes through quite an ordeal — and notably, a controversial transformation, which may polarise new audiences (we can't say more yet, but you'll know it when you see it). But it's Yennefer's backstory that proves a big part of The Witcher TV series.
"In the series, she discovers her powers and where they lie ... We show a lot of her vulnerability as a child and everything that she suffered. She had a very abusive relationship with her father, (or her father was abusive to her), and that develops a lot of insecurity in her," said Chalotra."
"All those insecurities actually feed what we call chaos in The Witcher, which feeds magic. You need to be able to hone that and channel it ... but it fed the chaos inside her that which, paired with the resilience she has, really sets her apart from any other mage and is the source of her power really."
Schmidt Hissrich dug deep into Sapkowski's collection of short stories and novels in order to craft the scripts, and found that the backstories of Ciri and Yennefer didn't get enough limelight upfront. So, she shook up the timeline.
"We knew that we wanted to adapt The Last Wish, because those are really the stories that develop the Continent the best and develop the world, the politics, the kingdoms, all of that, and what is a witcher," Schmidt Hissrich told Mashable.
"But the women are really not present in that particular book as much ... That's why we started messing with the timeline a little bit in storytelling. But it was important to us to represent the women as they were represented in the books."
"Let's remember that the source material — and again, it was written 30 years ago in Poland — but it's still material where all female characters are really, really strong," added executive producer Tomek Bagiński. "And some things [are] more important even than Geralt."
The Witcher lands Dec. 20 on Netflix.
Additional video edits by Nikolay Nikolov.
Topics Netflix
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.
