Lauren Hissrich, the showrunner for Netflix’s hotly anticipated new fantasy series The Witcher that’s based on a popular series of books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski which also spawned a video game franchise, has already made it clear she has multiple seasons of the show mapped out. A full seven seasons in fact, which should come as no surprise since there are eight books to draw material from.
On Wednesday morning, Netflix decided to go ahead and green-light a second season for the new series that stars Henry Cavill as monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia, ahead of the show’s debut on Netflix a little more than a month from now (on December 20). This means, in addition to being a vote of confidence in the new show, that Schmidt Hissrich’s backlog of season plans just got a little lighter.
She announced the news herself on Twitter, which also includes Schmidt Hissrich coming back for the sophomore season as executive producer.
I’m so thrilled to announce: Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri will be back for more adventures… in Season Two.
I could not be more proud of what the amazing cast and crew of The Witcher have accomplished, and can’t wait for the world to dig in and enjoy these stories with us. ❤️⚔️🐺 pic.twitter.com/evWoHvUl1e
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) November 13, 2019
Production for the series’ second season will get underway in London early next year, with a debut on Netflix set at this point for 2021. As with season 1, the follow-up season will again include eight episodes and bring back the same actors playing the core trio of characters: Cavill returning as Geralt, plus Anya Chalotra as Yennefer and Freya Allen as Ciri.
Hype has been building for months ahead of the series launching on Netflix, with a story that includes humans, witches, elves, monsters and the interplay between good and evil seemingly tailor-made as a replacement of sorts and the next great binge for Game of Thrones fans. We caught up recently with Schmidt Hissrich herself to talk about the show — how it came together, why she wanted to take this project on in the first place, and what fans can expect once it’s finally here.
“This franchise certainly has a super fanbase, a really activated and excited fan base, and I think they’re going to come to the show and love a lot of what they see,” she told us. “But, also, I want to find a lot of people like me, who might have thought this show is not for me, and bring them in and draw them in and show them that there is, in fact, a lot in fantasy (to appeal to) every viewer.”
