Author: Trafficblast

The first trailer for Netflix’s The Witcher series is here. The trailer for the highly anticipated show was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con, and sets up both Geralt as the Witcher and the world he exists in. “I remember hearing stories about Witchers,” a narrator says, before adding, “Is it true what they say?” Another character then offers a handy breakdown of society. Elves are described as the original sorcerers and they taught humans how to turn chaos into magic. The humans, in turn, slaughtered them.

“Chaos is the most dangerous thing in the world, but without control, chaos will kill you,” says another character. We get to see shots of Henry Cavil as Geralt, riding around on his horse Roach. He’s also shown receiving payment, which gives us a good look at Geralt’s iconic armor.

It’s pointed out that Geralt’s life seems fixated on monsters and money, which makes sense given that a Witcher’s job is to hunt monsters and get paid for it. Geralt says as much, replying, “It’s all it needs to be.” But it’s clear he’s about to get wrapped up in something bigger. There are references to a special child–who is no doubt Ciri–who must seek out Geralt. There’s a huge battle against Nilfgaard, and Yennefer is shown imagining herself as the most powerful woman in the world. “The worst monsters are the ones we create,” reads the tag line.

Alongside Cavil as Geralt, the show also stars Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, Frey Allan as Ciri, MyAnna Buring as Tissaia, Jodhi May as Queen Calanthe, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson as Eist, and Adam Levy as Mousesack.

In a recent interview, showrunner Lauren Hissrich spoke about the tone of the show, and revealed that it wouldn’t be for kids. “It’s a very adult show. I will add it was important to me that any violence or sex drives the story and is not there just for shock value. I think audiences are really savvy and know when we’re doing stuff to just shock them versus do stuff that really drives the story.”

The Witcher isn’t the only big new series getting revealed for the first time at SDCC. HBO’s His Dark Materials previewed on Thursday, while Netflix’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance features on Friday and the Star Trek show Picard has a panel on Saturday. Click here for more SDCC coverage on GameSpot.

Netflix’s Witcher show has become one of our most anticipated series of 2019, and with good reason. The Witcher universe is rich with characters, stories, and lore, whether from the original books by Andrzej Sapkowski, or the popular games that followed later.

During The Witcher’s lively Comic-Con panel, showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich took the stage with actors Henry Cavill (Geralt), Freya Allan (Ciri), and Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) to debut the new trailer and some exclusive footage, which raised our expectations even higher. After the panel, we got the chance to chat with Hissrich, and her answer to our biggest question surprised us.

At the panel, Hissrich revealed that “The Last Wish”–a collection of short stories that’s considered the first book in the series–was her entry into the Witcher universe, and the book she loves the most. In a group interview later, she elaborated, explaining that much of The Witcher’s first season on Netflix is based on The Last Wish.

“The Last Wish was the first book I read, so–you know how, with anything, the first time you experience a world, you fall in love with it in a totally different way. I love all of the books, but that was really my entrance into the world. So yeah, I drew a lot from it,” the showrunner said. “It really is [the] worldbuilding in The Last Wish that I found to be the most important thing.”

“When I first started talking to Netflix about the show, I think everyone assumed that we would start with the saga [the books that make up the main Witcher story], because that’s sort of the most serialized storytelling and would lend itself to bingeing,” she continued. “And I said, ‘You can’t do that without setting up the world first.’ I guess that was a big challenge, too, was where to begin.”

The next logical question, of course, was whether the Netflix show will draw from CD Projekt’s acclaimed and beloved video games as well. The answer? Nope–even if Netflix’s Witcher show goes on so long that it runs out of book material to adapt, Hissrich said, she wouldn’t move on to adapt the games, which, in the absence of any new books in years, have acted as sequels.

“Extreme long vision, no, we will not start adapting the games,” Hissrich explained. “I can only adapt one season at a time, and I’m so excited for this one, and the rest kind of makes my mind explode right now. If someone said to me, ‘What happens in Season 7?’ Like, sure, I have thoughts, you know–fingers crossed we get there.”

She elaborated slightly on that position in an answer to a separate question, saying she thinks game fans will like the show regardless of which source material it draws from.

“I’ve played the games, but really our stories are coming from the books,” the showrunner said. “I think there’s a lot of concern, will the television show be for game fans as well? And I absolutely think so. I mean, if you think about how adaptations work, the games are adaptations of the same source material that we’re using. If you come to the games and love the characters and love the kinds of stories that you find there, I think you’re going to love the show too.”

Based on the footage that we saw at Comic-Con today, and the trailer released online, we think she might be right. The Witcher will arrive on Netflix sometime in 2019.

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