The Witcher Fans Are Attacking Netflix For Their Arrogance About The Fantasy World
Netflix announced that they are changing The Witcher lore, and fans are not happy.
Once a critically acclaimed Netflix series that was worshiped by its fans, The Witcher has recently been going through a myriad of dramas that may have avid watchers turn their backs on the show entirely. It started with the announcement that Henry Cavill would be leaving the series after the end of the third season and that the show would replace its leading man with Hunger Games alumnus Liam Hemsworth. Now, according to Startefacts, Netflix is irritating fans even further by announcing that the show is changing some of the lore from The Witcher books.
It’s kind of ironic that the Netflix and The Witcher drama started when Cavill allegedly left the series due to creative differences with the showrunners. According to the rumor, Cavill wanted the show to be as close to the Andrzej Sapkowski novels as possible, and series creator Lauren Schmidt and her pals at Netflix wanted to be able to take some creative liberties. Obviously, the production house in charge won that battle, leaving Cavill no choice but to either suck it up or leave.
The irony is that fans of The Witcher franchise are on Cavill’s side, with many of them believing that Sapkowski’s books are too good to change. So, when Netflix made the big announcement that they were changing more of the lore and expected fans to be happy, the streaming platform was in for a big surprise.
Many fans were skeptical at the announcement that Cavill was leaving the show. For many, even if the series wasn’t a perfect interpretation of the books, Cavill was perfect as Geralt of Rivia. After all, Cavill himself is a major fan of The Witcher books and video games, so much so that when he first heard about the Netflix project, Cavill annoyed the series creators until he got cast in the part.
For many fans, this was exactly what they wanted in their leading man—someone who loved the lore of the original franchise and could bring that world to life on the screen, not just an actor who had memorized lines for a paycheck. However, many were still willing to give Hemsworth a chance, even if it was out of mere curiosity to see how Netflix would switch over The Witcher lead and have it make sense.
Now, it seems that fans’ patience is wearing thin as Netflix continues to press the boundaries of how much change the series watchers are willing to accept. While the streaming platform didn’t say exactly what changes it’s making to The Witcher lore, VFX producer Graeme Marshall said that it was nothing fans have ever read or seen before.
While Marshall said the changes were “exciting,” many fans were less than thrilled at the news. Already skeptical after Cavill’s departure, most series watchers are wondering how Netflix is going to trope-wash the series, expecting executives to take out the unique elements that Sapkowski designed in his books and replace them with generic fantasy tropes and clichés.
Even Sapkowski has lukewarm feelings about Netflix’s version of his books, saying The Witcher is not the best adaptation he’s seen but also not the worst.
