The Witcher is one of Netflix’s most popular titles and the streaming platform is capitalising on its unbridled popularity by expanding the universe. Besides the upcoming season two and the latest animated release, Nightmare of the Wolf, the streamer has announced a prequel series named The Witcher: Blood Origin and a kids series.
One might think that The Witcher is not appropriate for children given the sheer amount of violence, bloodshed and gore that plagues the series as well as the kind of mutagenic experiments that are carried on children to create mutants named witchers who are abhorred and dehumanized by the humankind.
While such heavy themes and scarring violence might have an adverse effect on children, showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich responded to the same and defended the show. “I agree, The Witcher is a dark, mature universe,” she said.
“I’d go further. It’s controversial. Political. A microcosm of humanity, for all its goodness and evil.”
She however expressed her strong belief about the “moral dilemmas and ethical greyness” of the universe to be the kind that children could benefit from. She spoke of how her eight and ten-year-old kids have begged to watch the show but have not been allowed.
Creating a children’s version would help them be a part of the universe and gain a “small but meaningful place in the world”.
Hissrich further said that the show can “also serve as a foundation from which to talk about big topics, racism, sexism, what it means to be a monster? And how we can fight back against those bleak black holes of humanity, so everyone knows there’s a place for them?”
She concluded her note by talking about how she would want everyone to be a part of this expanding universe and tapping the demographics that seemed unattainable and intangible in the beginning.
Check out the trailer for the upcoming season starring Henry Cavill below:
