Netflix’s The Witcher almost had Ciri as female protagonist not Henry Cavill’s Geralt
Upcoming Netflix drama The Witcher was originally going to focus on Ciri as a female protogranist, rather than Henry Cavill’s Geralt.
Showrunner Lauren Hissrich has revealed that in her original pitch she began with book five of the series, The Lady In The Lake, and chose Ciri as the viewers’ anchor into this new world.
“What I wanted to capture is these women before they were seen through the lens of anyone else. In the books, all the characters are met through Geralt, so you get Geralt’s impression of them, then you get to meet them, and I wanted the world to see Ciri who she was first,” said Lauren.
However she added that she “realised as I started writing that version that I wasn’t getting enough of Geralt and his perspective, because it was being told through Ciri’.
“So it actually took me a while,” she said, “I went through several versions and then I literally had a a-ha moment in the shower.”
The Witcher is the brand new fantasy series starring Superman’s Henry Cavill that coming to Netflix UK on December 20, 2019 and is based Andrzej Sapkowksi’s incredibly popular fantasy novels and short stories.
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The eight-episode adaptation tells the story of Geralt of Rivia, “a mutated monster hunter, [who] struggles to find his place in a world in which people often prove more wicked than beasts”.
It will also delve into the stories of Princess Ciri and Yennefer of Vengerberg, demonstrating how destiny brings these three characters together.
Mr Sapkowki’s books were also adapted into a successful trilogy of video games and reached mainstream acclaim with the 2015 release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and it was previously brought to the life in a 2001 film adaption.
However, the Netflix series is based on the books not the games, describing it as “an epic tale of fate and family”.