The contemporary movie and television worlds are full of adaptations, whether they be adaptations of books, comics, video games, or plays. These can vary massively in terms of quality and in terms of critical as well as audience reception. One of the most successful and popular in recent years has been Netflix's The Witcher.
Adapting The Witcher could have gone very differently. The world and lore are large and complex, requiring the showrunners to pay a lot of attention to detail and work hard at worldbuilding. Fans had their own impressions of the characters, leading to a lukewarm reception when Man of Steel's Henry Cavill was cast as the lead character. However, the series came together very successfully, with Cavill garnering massive love and praise for his work as Geralt.
Netflix has revealed that The Witcher is one of their most watched original series. The show was renewed for a second season, which is currently in production after delays due to COVID-19. If the second season does as well as the first, this could help change the game for adaptations going forward, particularly for television series.
History of The Witcher
The Witcher began as a series of fantasy novels and stories by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The titular Witcher of the books is Geralt of Rivia, a beast hunter who is raised to have supernatural abilities in order to battle beasts and monsters. Released between 1993 and 2013, the books are often described as being cult classics. The books were adapted into an action role-playing game, entitled The Witcher, in 2007 by CD Projekt Red. The game, like the books, follows beast hunter Geralt and takes place in the same medieval fantasy world. The video game was extremely successful, and was followed by The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings in 2011 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015.
Netflix adapted The Witcher into a TV series that first premiered in 2019. Although inspired by the massive success of the video games, the show is said to be based on the first few books in the series. While Andrzej Sapkowski had little to do with the artistic direction of the show, he was satisfied with the adaptation and with Henry Cavill as Geralt. This is not surprising, considering sales for both his books and The Witcher video games saw a massive rise after the success of the show. Along with producing a second season, Netflix will also be releasing two spin-offs: the animated film Nightmare of the Wolf, and a live-action limited series The Witcher: Blood Origin.
Popularizing High Fantasy
The Witcher can be described as a "high fantasy" series. It is set in a fantastical world very different from the real one, with its own history, rules, magic, and species. This genre has seen mass success in the past with franchises such as Game of Thrones or The Lord of The Rings. Despite this, high fantasy is still often looked down upon or considered a "niche" genre. It's generally expensive to film and make in high quality, which combined with its perceived niche status, means it can be considered a risk to make and invest in, especially in television.
Netflix has many successful fantasy series, including Locke and Key, Fate: The Winx Saga, and Lucifer. However, The Witcher is definitely its most successful in the high fantasy sub genre. Its massive popularity proves that high fantasy can reach more than a niche audience. If the success of The Witcher continues, this could inspire more streaming services and studios to take a risk on high fantasy or on similarly expensive genres.
Improving Reputation of Video Game Adaptations
Whether deserved or not, video game adaptations often have a reputation for being bad, cheesy, or unpopular with fans. A TV adaptation of a video game franchise is especially rare, despite the fact that many video games have expansive universes and storylines that could be done more justice as a series than as a single film. While popular game The Last of Us is getting a series adaptation by HBO, this doesn't tend to be the typical choice for video game adaptations, probably due to their reputation.
Although based on the book series, The Witcher TV show does take some inspiration from the games. The games are more high profile than the book series, and so the tv show's brand is more entwined with the games. Therefore, The Witcher proved that a video game adaptation can not only be popular and successful, but work as a television series and not just as a standalone movie. This could open up the market for more video games to be picked up for television adaptations.
So What Could Be Adapted?
The success of The Witcher opens up possibilities for TV show adaptations of video games with complex worlds and multiple storylines; stories that need the length of a television series but also a sizeable budget. In the realm of high fantasy, the Dragon Age series could work as a television series along the same line as The Witcher, with a medieval world and characters. The world and storyline need the time and space to develop and could work better in a television series than in a single film. The Dishonored games, which a Lord of the Rings show writer has previously said she would love to adapt, have a massive world and interesting narrative that could thrive in a TV show format. The Witcher proves that picking up a series like that one could be lucrative.
There are several other games that, while not high fantasy, have vast worlds that take time to explore, along with multiple interesting storylines and characters. Successful games like Ghost of Tsushima, Mass Effect, Fallout, or Half-Life could find success as TV series if picked up by studios or streaming services. Hopefully, the success of The Witcher will inspire others to invest as much time, money, and devotion into creative genre adaptations of beloved video game franchises.
The Witcher Season 2 is coming to Netflix in 2021.