The Witcher Season 1 Won’t Be Featuring Every Story of the First Book

The Witcher season 1 won’t be featuring every story off the first book

In an interview with Comic Book, executive producer Tomek Baginski has confirmed a new detail about Netflix’s upcoming fantasy series adaptation The Witcher. He revealed that the first season won’t be covering every story on Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s first Witcher book titled The Last Wish which is a collection of six short stories. Baginski further explained that it was difficult for them to fit a lot of source material into only eight episodes.

“Actually the books were a lot more source material than we could fit into eight episodes,” Bagiński said, “So we have to really be very, very careful with choosing which stories we want to tell. And Lauren [S. Hissrich, showrunner,] did a really great job. Not only choosing the right stories to tell the story of Geralt, but also by giving some background both to Yennefer and to Ciri. Because for us the goal was always to tell a bigger story. A bigger story comes up first with the saga, and the saga there is not only about Geralt and his friends, it’s also about Yennefer, it’s also about Ciri, and we knew that we have to build those characters earlier.”

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Based on the best-selling fantasy series, The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. But when destiny hurtles him toward a powerful sorceress, and a young princess with a dangerous secret, the three must learn to navigate the increasingly volatile Continent together.

The series stars Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, 17-year-old Freya Allan as Ciri, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, Jodhi May as Queen Calanthe, Mimi Ndiweni as fledgling sorceress Fringilla, Sabrina as Therica Wilson-Read, Millie Brady as outcast Princess Renfri, Adam Levy as the druid Mousesack, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson as Queen Calanthe’s husband, the knight Eist and MyAnna Buring as Tissaia, head of the magical academy.

The Witcher series for Netflix will be based on the stories and novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, of which there are eight, which themselves formulated the popular Witcher games franchise which has since spawned a comic book series and a tabletop game. The book series was previously adapted for television in Poland.

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Schmidt Hissrich will serve as executive producer and showrunner for The Witcher. She’s known for her work (writing and co-executive producing) on The Defenders, Daredevil, and Power. Sean Daniel is set to executive produce under the Sean Daniel Company with his partner Jason Brown. Tomek Baginski and Jarek Sawko of Platige Image will executive produce as well.

The Witcher is set to premiere on December 20 on Netflix.

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