With Jaskier’s catchy little ditty (and all its fan-made remixes) still ringing in our ears, we’re very much looking forward to the continued adventures of Geralt, Yennefer, Ciri, and co. Netflix renewed The Witcher for a second season even before its season 1 debut, announcing the return of showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and a tentative 2021 release. That was back in November, with details being kept tightly under wraps—until now.
This week, Hissrich dropped by r/Wiedźmin (that’s the original Polish title for The Witcher) for an AMA, tirelessly answering non-stop fan inquiries about behind-the-scenes choices, lore, season 1 Easter Eggs, and, yes, season 2. Here’s everything we learned about the episodes to come.
- Season 2’s storyline will “be much more linear,” now that Geralt, Yen, and Ciri’s stories have “started to intersect,” and will also be “structured differently” from season 1.
- Accordingly, season 2’s scripts “are now MUCH shorter.”
- “A whole new set of fun characters” will be arriving in season 2.
- So will “other non-humans.“
- And, possibly, “more witchers,” at which point we’ll also get more “tidbits of witcher lore.”
- There’s “much more to be learned” about the sorcerer Vilgefortz.
- The Nilfgaardians’ complexity and depth beyond their roles as villains will “definitely be explored more thoroughly in S2.”
- In season 2, they’ll be taking a different approach to the passage of time, which she said was “hard to show…when everyone looks the same.”
- That said, they’ll be tackling season 2 with a similar philosophy to season 1: “What are the stories Sapkowski was telling, and why? What building blocks do we need to set up future stories? Is there anything we missed from S1 that we want to include? And what will work on television? For instance — no one wants to see Triss have diarrhea for three episodes. So what are we trying to glean from that in the books, and how do we present that onscreen?”
- Additionally, they’ll continue to do “color-blind casting” for season 2, and “hope to expand our reach even more.”
- They will also incorporate more aspects of Polish culture and language.
- There will be queer representation in season 2.
- The “target launch date” for season 2 remains undetermined beyond 2021.
Hissrich asked fans to consider this an “extended AMA,” promising to pop in and answer questions from time to time, so keep checking in for new updates!
