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Netflix is taking The Witcher in a new direction, much more horrific

Netflix

The upcoming Witcher Netflix series is drumming up a ton of hype, and so the team behind the project is doing the rounds in the press to push the series. In particular, the newest issue of SFX magazine, scheduled to land on newsstands this week, featured an interview with The Witcher’s visual effects supervisor,  Julian Parry. In said interview they spoke about a variety of topics, including the new direction the project is taking.

Parry said that rather than the more fantasy-inspired sword and sorcery tone of the books, the Netflix version will push things in a scarier direction. “I definitely think it leans more towards horror,” Parry says. “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. For example, with Striga [a woman cursed to live as a monster], that’s one gnarly-looking thing. That’s very unpleasant!”

The issue with recreating the look and feel of the source material, comes down to a logistical concern, as Parry explains: “We’ve got the Nilfgaard armies, which can’t exist because there are 10,000-plus of them. Same with the Temerians and the Cintrans. the armies physically can’t exist here on set.”

But that’s not all SFX had for fans, showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich also told SFX when speaking about the future of the series, “Second season? I’ve done it for seven seasons!” We don’t have a second season yet – God willing we will – but right now it’s just about, ‘How do you set up stories that really capture audiences for years at a time?’ The worst thing we could do is put all of our energies just into season one, and not be thinking about where these characters can grow to.”

So if you’re a fan of the franchise, expect something a lot less like A Song of Ice and Fire and a lot more like The Red Tree. The first season of the adaptation, which includes all eight episodes, is set to premiere on Netflix on December 20th.

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