The Witcher Netflix series is just a month away and the book adaptation aims to be much scarier than people might realise. Understandable given the subject material, but many might still go into the new Netflix series with the games in mind, not the books.
“I definitely think it leans more towards horror,” said visual effects supervisor Julian Parry in a recent interview in SFX Magazine. “We’re definitely taking the fantasy out. I can honestly say we’re not fantastical. I mean, it’s fantastical but in a grounded horror sense,” Parry said. “For example, with Striga [a woman cursed to live as a monster], that’s one gnarly-looking thing. That’s very unpleasant!”
The Witcher franchise as a whole is filled with gruesome beasts, so there’s definitely plenty of horror material there to go off of. Not to mention that this is based on the books, which the games came later, so the freedom to take what’s already there and make it even more material is there within reason.
“We’ve got the Nilfgaard armies, which can’t exist because there are 10,000-plus of them,” Parry added when talking about the more strategic part of the source material. “Same with the Temerians and the Cintrans. the armies physically can’t exist here on set.”
In this day and age, and with the proper budget, anything is possible and from what we’ve seen of the latest trailer, it looks like it’s going to do the Witcher name justice. With a tagline of “The Witcher Geralt, a mutated monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts,” it’s hard not to be totally amped for the upcoming 8-episode long series!
The upcoming show stars Man of Steel’s Henry Cavill as the main protagonist himself, alongside Freya Allan as Ciri, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, and Anna Shaffer as Triss Merigold. The author of the books himself is also on board with the project, working as the creative consultant for Hissrich’s vision.
The Witcher Netflix series officially debuts on December 20th!
