Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Do you feel like you gave them too much credit?
The audience is incredibly smart.
That being said, what I misunderstood was what everyone was looking for in their entertainment.
Not everyone, it turned out, wants to do that.
And Im like, Yes!
Thats when it should have hit home.
And to me, that was like a huge success.
And yet, that viewer felt like they wanted to understand what was going on from episode one.
Its a great lesson to take out of this show.
We are all turning up for different things.
I will continue to attempt to write television that I think is smart and challenging.
I hope that fans will be along for that ride.
Youve been very vocal online about the criticism youve received, accepting some critiques while expressing disagreements with others.
Is there a critique youre most excited to implement in season two?Yes.
They were trying to follow so much story that none of the stories emotionally resonated.
Not everyone feels that way, but I have heard that critique enough for it to sit with me.
And that’s fine!
We had to make hard choices, and we didn’t get them right every time.
But it’s important to me that fans know those choices weren’t made lightly.
One of the biggest changes weve made is to see to it that the scripts arent too long.
You end up cutting stuff that you know would be great, or would be important.
And thats probably the thing Im most excited for people to see.
All three characters [Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer] are on the same timeline now.
Thats where we ended season one.
Thats absolutely where we will pick up in season two.
The stories will be told in a much more linear fashion.
They wont all be one story.
Its not like all three are together and happy all the time.
But, I do want to employ some different ways to look at time series-wide.
I think that there is a lot that we couldnt fit into season one.
There are different short stories that I would love to highlight and focus on.
We may end up doing those in the future, via flashback, for instance.
But no, we wont have things happening across 100 years at the same time anymore.
Do you have a personal history with the genre?I fell in love with David Bowie inLabyrinth.
Thats probably the initial fantasy movie that I saw and fell in love with.The NeverEnding Storywas another one.
I tried to show that one to my children.
It horrified, terrified them to death.
These are the things that I loved as a child.
My fantasy literature was different.
I have to say it was much more ofThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobetype of things.
I didnt have a lot of experience with adult fantasy.
And thats sort of what intersected with me andThe Witcher.
They hadnt bought it yet.
I dont mean sex and violence.
I wonder where that came from?Its something that I adore writing about.
I didnt have family there.
Obviously, I met my husband.
I have two kids.
I have grown a family there.
But its something that we talk to our kids a lot about.
Thats big in my life, because its something I had to go through.
I love what happens between colleagues.
Its just another facet of family to me.
Thats certainly what we explored all overThe West Wing.
I was an intern in my first season between my junior and senior years of college.
Then, I worked on the staff for the next six years.
All of my friends were fromThe West Wing.
It was all I did.
We worked 16 hours a day, and it was my entire life.
Spiritually, theyre not so dissimilar.
You know, when we write scenes, we write scenes as we see them.
As her skin was going to split open, we wanted to see the visceralness of that process.
It made sense to us that she wouldnt be wearing anything.
If the actor is not comfortable, that scene is rewritten.
There is absolutely no way that we proceed forward unless everyone is comfortable.
As a showrunner, it all has to be actor-led.
And thats how we have proceeded with it.
But she felt like it was very integral to the transformation of her character.
She described it as a sex-positive portrayal of the body.
That was something that we jointly agreed on, and thats what ended up on the screen.
She gets to doa lotmore.
Mimi Ndiweni did such a fantastic job portraying her.
How did those changes came about?This is something that Joey Batey and I spoke about a lot.
How do we take a character who loves women and not play him as a womanizer?
We didnt want to play him as someone who is just trolling around, taking advantage of helpless women.
This is something that is so misunderstood.
Many think that if you have strong female characters, then obviously the men are weak.
It makes men stronger too.
He loves women, especially.
But what he loves is women who love him as well.
It was easy for Joey to portray.
Joey is someone who has a lot of natural joy in life.
Thats what we tapped into for the character.
You root for him to find his true love … if thats what hes looking for.
