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The Witcher season 2: Showrunner announces huge timeline change for new episodes

Fans criticised the structure of the first eight episodes

Jacob Stolworthy
Thursday 23 January 2020 12:19 GMT
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The Witcher trailer

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The Witcher showrunner has announced season two will introduce a big change following fan criticism.

Following the fantasy series’s arrival on Netflix, some viewers voiced their confusion over the show’s non-linear timeline, which enabled characters Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) and Ciri (Freya Allen) to be introduced far earlier than they appeared in the source material, written by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Lauren Schmidt Hissrich explained the decision in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) earlier this month, saying: “The narrative structure was put in place so that we could tell Geralt’s short stories (the foundation of the whole Witcher world, in my opinion), while Ciri and Yennefer could also be a part of the action.

“Their stories don’t happen simultaneously, so we knew we needed to play with time a bit.”

She added that she was shocked it became one of the most criticised parts of the show, which is on course to have the most successful debut season of a TV show in Netflix history.

Despite this, Hissrich acknowledged there would be a “change” in season two “as their stories have begun to converge”.

“In this case, the people who hated it will luck out, because season two is structured differently,” she concluded.

The Witcher stars Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter in a world known as The Continent

Season two is expected to be available to stream on Netflix in 2021.

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