Producer talks: Why The Witcher TV series doesn't adapt the game

Netflix's new fantasy drama "The Witcher" is a TV series adapted from the fantasy novel of the same name by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. Although the audience is more familiar with the game than the original, the drama is not adapted from the globally best-selling CDPR game of the same name.

"I think American audiences mostly know Geralt from the Witcher games, so why did we adapt it from the books and not from the games? The answer is very simple, because the games are based on the books. For me, it doesn't make any sense to adapt something that has already been adapted," said Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, producer of The Witcher, in an interview with Netflix's Behind the Scenes Podcast.

Lauren Schmidt Hissrich added: "The purpose of this is to allow us to tell the story of the Demon Hunter, just in a different way. I think a lot of game fans are worried that we are taking something away from them and that we are usurping what belongs to them. In fact, I like The Witcher game very much. The game is very successful. I can only hope that our TV series can be as successful as the game. The game will not disappear, and the book will not disappear. The TV series is just a third way to appreciate The Witcher characters and world."

The second season of The Witcher TV series will begin filming on February 17 and will premiere in 2021.