The Witcher showrunner defends creative choices: "We Can't Please Everyone"

Netflix's The Witcher may have started as a faithful adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's books, but after multiple seasons and growing creative detours, fan criticism has mounted.

The Netflix adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's beloved books may have started strong, but over the years, with new seasons and, not least, "digressions," criticism from fans has grown. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich now responds to this in an interview with Dexerto, where she explains, among other things, how they still follow the books to a certain extent and will definitely not start inventing their own material beyond what has already been written.

"We're not going to go past the books. We lean so hardcore into fantasy at the end in wonderful ways that Sapkowski introduced us to. So we knew the stories that we needed to end with."

However, Hissrich also goes on to mention how, in the end, they cannot please all fans, but must to some extent do "their own thing."

"You have book fans, you have video game fans, and then you have fans that knew nothing about this world until the show existed. We can't choose one audience. We have to remember what we are doing, which is a television show."

Hissrich goes on to explain that there are several versions of The Witcher - the books, the games and the TV series - all providing a different take on the character.

"The books still exist. No one is taking the books away. No one is taking the video games away. I think everyone can have their version of The Witcher and this is this version."

So while it seems they plan on trying to keep honouring the source material, they're going their own way, in a sense. Whether that's good or bad is open to debate. Check out our review of the fourth season here.