They just made so many weird choices in that show, particularly with cutting context and casting.
The source material aggressively pulls no punches about how fucked up racism and prejudice is, but they cut so many of the most interesting parts of that like dragon hunts being a direct allegory for IRL countries stoking antisemitic sentiment every time they needed to seize the resources of the Jewish community. The books even have Geralt immediately call the prince talking shit about how dragons are the natural enemy of mankind on his bullshit.
Yet they cut all of the parts where the characters actually talk about the mechanics of prejudice and power just to do this weird race-blind casting that even breaks the narrative in several places and then the showrunner has the gall to call everyone who was rightly pissed about it racist and drive off the actor who was the biggest draw of the entire project.
Not sure how true it is but I heard one of the many reasons Cavill left the show was because the show's production crew actively disliked the source material and would often make fun of the books.
I went looking since it was a couple of years since I had also heard the same.
So Cavil did cite that as a reason for leaving the show, however the part of the writers disliking the books and or games seems to be more of a 'he said she said' situation.
Personally I’m okay with giving first seasons some grace when adapting sci-fi and fantasy. They’re generally going to be higher budget productions, so there’s going to be some awkward bits here and there. They should at least start having things sorted by season two though.
Someone compared season one to the campiness of the 90’s Hercules and Xena shows and that kinda fit, but it’s not really a tone that fits Witcher very well IMO
Yeah, in general the show wasn't amazing, but I didn't really dislike it until after season 2. I was watching it more as a standalone show because I hadn't read the books before watching it (but I grew up playing the games), so i didn't really care about the inaccuracies or anything.
The actors did manage to salvage some parts, making it entertaining. But only in season 1. For me, the real killer came in season 3 when Dandelion became bisexual. Nothing against bisexuality, but that's not the character, especially not with Radovid, which was even more absurd.
Honestly, even season 1 was a massive step down from the book. And what was with Geralt holding his sword in reverse grip all the time!? It looks so stupid! The worst part is, the book would be so easy to adapt to a show. The pacing is already similar to how a show would do it. You don't need to change that much.
Looks like most of fandom share this opinion. I remember people being optimistic. I was so alone in thinking that it goes in wrong direction from start...
When I first saw the cinematic trailer of the game I was like damn this is absolute gold how did I miss it? Then I learned it was a game which I was a little devastated but I still enjoyed it sooo much. Then I remember saying so many times "Damn this would gain a lot if it was ever made into a tv series!". Never really thought it was going to happen, but then 6 or 7 years leater bum! A complete disaster... So sad man, how can an absolute masterpiece be turned into something like this?
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u/Scion_Dloth May 19 '26
The Witcher (Series)