While a picture is worth a thousand words, The Witcher's writers managed to create an entire character arc from one description. In a recent interview, showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich revealed what source material from the original Witcher saga influenced Yennefer's appearance and story arc in the first season.
Although casual viewers of The Witcher are likely more familiar with CD Projekt Red's wildly popular video games, some fans may not realize that both the Netflix and video game series are based off a series of novels and short stories penned by Andrzej Sapkowski. When adapting The Witcher for television, the production crew approached the series as an adaptation of the written narratives and refused to take cues from the games.
In a recent installment of the Netflix Behind the Scenes podcast, The Witcher's showrunner revealed her struggle to choose between prioritizing the Witcher saga's novels or short stories in her adaptation. When she ultimately decided to use elements from both and introduce Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri's narratives all at once, Hissrich found that Yennefer's arc was difficult to depict in parallel with the other two protagonists' stories.
Because Sapkowski only depicted Yennefer in the present, Hissrich had to draw upon the few references to the Vengerberg sorceress' backstory available in the first Witcher novel, Blood of Elves, and The Last Wish, a short story that was adapted into the Netflix series' fifth episode. Using a description of Yennefer's appearance in the past from the short story and her presence at the Battle of Sodden Hill in the book, Hissrich and the writers created their own chronological arc for Yennefer.
As for what this revelation means for future seasons of The Witcher, Hissrich has remained silent. However, it is important to note that The Witcher's first season was a unique case, where the saga from the novels needed to be set up while keeping the foundations that the original short stories established. Although the Netflix production team had more creative freedom and unexplored territory with the opportunity to fuse the separate narratives together, it may have less opportunity to take creative liberties. However, the crew's unique approach (and changes in story and character from the Witcher books) to the first season may allow it to continue to throw the occasional unique twists into their takes on major series events.
Ultimately, fans should be excited for The Witcher's second season. As the adaptation begins to enter saga territory, the production crew seems to be ramping up hype and speculation. The latest rumors state that a Game of Thrones star might join the Witcher cast.
Although there will be no Witcher 4 in the immediate future to sate fan appetites while they wait for Season 2, fans have not forgotten the new Netflix series. Fan creations and discussions have flooded the Internet lately, and every Witcher property seems to be experiencing a resurgence in popularity. It seems that Geralt of Rivia will continue to remain in the public's attention for some time yet.