Is Netflix’s The Witcher destined to be the next big fantasy drama after Game of Thrones?
The Witcher series began life as books, by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, and the stories follow the adventures of a witcher (monster hunter), Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavill
With Game of Thrones done and dusted – at least until the prequel House of the Dragon arrives at some unspecified date – there is no series that can claim to be television’s king of fantasy. Maybe not for long. Eagerly anticipated new series The Witcher drops on Netflix today and has all the ingredients required to be a worthy successor to George RR Martin’s epic of Westeros.
But how do the two series compare? Here’s what you need to know.
Both are based on popular fantasy series
Game of Thrones was commissioned by HBO on the strength of Martin’s extremely popular series of novels, A Song of Ice and Fire. First published in 1996, Martin had been working on this saga for 15 years by the time the adaptation first hit screens, and even now the literary tale remains unfinished – to the chagrin of many fans.
Similarly, The Witcher series began life as a series of books, by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The original short stories that commenced The Witcher saga are even older than Game of Thrones, the first batch being collected in Polish in 1992. It took 15 years, though, for the series to appear in English.
Expect a different sense of scale
Unlike Game of Thrones, however, Sapkowski’s stories were more in the vein of “swords and sorcery”, following the adventures of a lone hero, in this case Geralt of Rivia, rather than the vast armies and political machinations that surrounded the Iron Throne. Geralt is a witcher, essentially a monster hunter, and Sapkowski’s initial tales focused on the individual creatures Geralt was hired to slay and a small cast of supporting characters.
Netflix’s series seems to be following the style of those early Witcher stories, focusing on Geralt’s lone adventures (before the series expanded in scope and the fate of kingdoms became an issue). Essential characters in the Witcher world, such as Yennefer and Ciri, are set to be introduced as the season progresses but it does not appear as though they will come together until the season’s end.