The original author of "The Witcher" novel: Netflix never listened to my feedback

The Witcher novels inspired CD Projekt's game series and Netflix's series, but the novel's author, Andrzej Sapkowski, said Netflix did not listen to his feedback when creating the series.

Speaking to Cerealkillers while attending Vienna Comic Con, Sapkowski was asked about the adaptations of his novels, and he said that every visual adaptation of The Witcher series is "weird" for him because, as a writer, he only works with words.

He explains: "The only raw material I work with is letters. I don't describe images. I don't see any images. I use letters only because I know that my readers will only see letters in the book, not images. So I have to use my letters to make the reader imagine the image, not the other way around... So every visual adaptation is strange for me."

Sapkowski said he would look at other people's interpretations of The Witcher and comment "This is how they portray them. It's interesting." He added that sometimes it was a welcome surprise, especially those that he "resonated with." But there were also times when he disagreed with certain insights, but did not further explain which interpretations were problematic.

Later in the interview, the topic turned to Netflix's series and his visit to the set. While he praised the series, calling it "fantastic," he also said that Netflix never accepted any feedback from him.

Outwardly, the writer was not bothered by the streaming service's reaction, saying it was "normal." He then did a hilarious imitation of a Netflix executive and said dismissively, "Who is this? A writer? No one."

Sapkowski's statement may be true, considering that Cavill, who plays Geralt, recently launched a Netflix series. Although Cavill has not publicly stated the reason for his decision to leave the show, many people speculate that he was not happy with the direction of the Netflix series and that the production team may have over-adapted it. Cavill has previously publicly expressed his hope that the series will be as faithful to the original book as possible.