The Netflix original series The Witcher based on the novels by Andrzej Sapkowski has been a smash hit among fans but there was one complaint that showrunner Lauren Hissrich took note of: the confusing timeline. The show utilizes a non-linear timeline to help explore the world and get the audience used to the world of The Witcher. However, many found this puzzling and may be heartened to hear that season 2 will not follow the same structure.
The unique timeline, which was riddled with clues, allowed for the audience to get to know characters like Yennefer and Ciri, as most of their stories do not happen all at the same time. In fact, the original novel by Sapkowski is a collection of stories that mainly follow Geralt of Rivia and has inspired the "monster-of-the-week" style to each episode.
"Honestly," Hissrich admits in a post on Reddit, "I didn't expect this to be one of the most hotly-contested part of the series." Hissrich thought there would be too many comparisons to the HBO series Game of Thrones or any number of the morally conflicting decisions that either Geralt, Ciri, or Yennifer have to encounter during the season. The structure of season one's timeline took painstaking effort and detail from Hissrich to achieve. Hissrich speaks volumes of the cast and crew's work to make the story engrossing enough that the audience wouldn't realize the timeline difference until a certain point.
"I've heard a lot of people say 'I didn't figure it out until episode 4!"'-- which is exactly when we expected people would do it," Hissrich explains. The showrunner had quite the task of combining both elements from the novel as well as moments to impress fans of the game as well. Some fans have complained about the major differences between the games and the series, but Hissrich is more concerned about creating a series to keep fans watching.
Hissrich is taking all source material into account and is clearly a fan of the novels. It will be interesting to see what the focus of season 2 of The Witcher will be as there is so much to choose from. One thing about season 2 is abundantly clear, though: the timeline will be way more simplistic.
"In this case, the people who hated it (Season 1 timeline) will luck out, because S2 is structured differently," Hissrich promises that Season 2 of The Witcher will follow a more traditional timeline as Geralt of Rivia, Yennifer, and Ciri's stories have all finally aligned. However, fans of the series will have to wait until sometime in 2021 to find out what happens next.
The Witcher, the television series season 1, is available now exclusively on Netflix.
Source: Reddit