Many people knew about the world of The Witcher and Geralt’s monster-slaying adventures on The Continent long before The Witcher Netflix series arrived – thanks mainly to CD Projekt Red’s trilogy of acclaimed games, and less Andrzej Sapkowski’s series of short stories and novels.
Because of that, The Witcher showrunner/creator Lauren S. Hissrich has promised that we can expect more Easter eggs and game references in future.
“We love the games," Hissrich told TV Guide of the video game’s influence on the creative team behind the Netflix series. "Obviously what we wanted to do is go back to the source material, not to do an adaptation of an adaptation. But it doesn't mean that we're not fans of the games ourselves, that we don't play them ourselves, and that we know that a huge part of our audience has only heard of The Witcher because of the video games.”
The first season included a sprinkling of references to the game trilogy, with one such moment coming with the inclusion of Bathtub Geralt, an oft-used image from our sister site PC Gamer that spawned into a meme with a life of its own. But there’s going to be more than just Henry Cavill’s glistening body to look forward to in The Witcher season 2 (and beyond).
“We want to pay homage to it, to them as often as possible. And also I’ve been to CD Projekt Red. I’ve met all of all of those really talented people there. And what they do is amazing. So, if we can offer them a wink and a nod whenever we can, we will,” Hissrich said.
The new characters set to be introduced next year offers up one gateway into the winks and nods Hissrich mentions. Lambert – a fellow Witcher to Geralt – is the subject of an amusing (and sweary) limerick in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Most of all, though, we really, really want to see Geralt and Jaskier banter over a round of Gwent. Make it happen, Netflix.
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