Anais Gutierrez
Geralt fans you’re about to loose it. Netflix just announced it will develop an adaptation of The Witcher saga. The streaming service is working along with the book series creator, Andrzej Sapkowski.
The Witcher goes from paper to video game to Netflix
Netflix made on Wednesday the biggest news for The Witcher’s fans.The streaming service confirmed it will develop and produce an English-language drama series based on the fantasy books from Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.
Since the books were first published they paved the way for a major video game franchise that has been translated into more than 20 languages.
The books served as inspiration for the critically acclaimed game franchise and now Netflix is getting its hand on the popular story to deliver another Netflix Original.
Netflix’s vice president for international series said, “Andrzej Sapkowski has created a rich and memorable world, at once magical and familiar. We couldn’t be more excited about bringing The Witcher saga to Netflix members around the world.”
Netflix will work with Sean Daniel and Jason Brown, partners at the Sean Daniel Company, to produce the series. They also shared their excitement about the project, “The Witcher stories follow an unconventional family that comes together to fight for truth in a dangerous world.”
“The characters are original, funny and constantly surprising and we can’t wait to bring them to life at Netflix, the perfect home for innovative storytelling,” Daniel and Brown said.
Thank God For CGI
Tomek Baginski and Jarred Sawko, from Platige Image, are also joining the production and bring the dopest visual effects. Baginski is also directing at least one episode in what will be a multiple season show.
The Oscar-nominated and BAFTA winner producers said of the project, “There is moral and intellectual depth in these books which go beyond genre. It’s a story about today and today’s challenges, hidden under a fantasy cover. It’s a story about us, bout the monster and the hero inside all of our hearts.”
This is not the first time The Witcher saga is set hit the screens. In 2015, a film adaptation of the saga was set to begin. The Sean Daniel Company, which is currently producing the Netflix adaptation, teamed up with Platige Films on the project. The Sean Daniel Company is obviously still on board, however, they’re putting the movie project in shelves in favor of the Original Series.
Great story hitting the screens
Andrzej Sapkowski’s series of novels and short story collections focuses on “witchers,” or monster hunters with supernatural powers.
The Witcher follows Geralt of Rivera, a Witcher, kinda monster hunter. Geralt was genetically modified to have supernatural powers at a young age. The purpose of this? For him to live his life slaying and hunting monsters that could only live in fantasy worlds. On top of that, Geralt is one of the last remaining of his kind in The Continent.
The book series initially started as short stories in the mids 80s in a science fiction magazine called Fantastyka.
Sapkowski wrote the first story for a contest in that magazine and won third place. Now, over twenty years later, the saga has amassed a lot of fans of the story.
After The Witcher, Sapkowski continued writing more short stories following Geralt’s adventures. It was not until 2007 that the stories saw English translations.
The fantasy story turned into a major video game franchise by CD Projekt RED.
“I’m thrilled that Netflix will be doing an adaptation of my stories, staying true to the source material and the themes that I have spent over thirty years writing,” Sapkowski, who will serve as a creative consultant on the series, said in a statement.
“I’m excited about our efforts together, as well as the team assembled to shepherd these characters to life.”
More adaptations to come
In February, Netflix announced that it was working on an adaptation of Castlevania as an animated series.
Producer Adi Shankar, of Dredd and The Grey, revealed that on board for a Castlevania animated series for Netflix. Its first season due in 2017 and a second season will hit the screen of the streaming service the following year.
Castlevania is a series of dark fantasy action video games created and developed by Konami. The story follows the Belmont family, a clan of vampire hunters who fight wit Dracula.
The series first debuted in 1986 and has been released on various platforms since. The vampires series would more likely get a spin in the animated series, according to producer Adi Shankar who has been working on an adaptation for a while.
In 2016, he suggested that his in-progress show would be “dark, satirical” and “flip the vampire sub-genre on its head.” Maybe your favorite video game will get an adaptation soon.
Source: EW
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