Netflix's The Witcher became one of the last big hits of the decade just a few weeks ago, and fans are already dying to know: why aren't they getting any more of the show until 2021? Netflix had already renewed the show for a second season before The Witcher season 1 had even released, but that apparently doesn't mean the next installment will arrive any sooner.
Fans have known about The Witcher's far-off season 2 release window for just about as long as they've been able to watch season 1, but the question as to what exactly would take so long has gone unanswered until now. Lauren S. Hissrich, The Witcher's showrunner, is known for being unusually open and communicative with Witcher fans, so it isn't terribly surprising that she finally addressed this common concern.
Despite the fact that The Witcher season 2 won't be airing for over a year, work on the season is already well underway, with Hissrich herself recently arriving in London to resume work on the show. As it turns out, time is precisely the reason for season 2's agonizing delay; when speaking with IGN, Hissrich revealed that the team had originally considered a 2020 release date for season 2, but ultimately decided that quality was more important than a quick production schedule. "The truth is, [The Witcher] is an enormous show and it takes a long time and we realized that in Season 1 we were smashing down a lot of the post-production process," Hissrich said. "And we want to make sure that everyone on our team gets the time to do their job and do it to the best of their ability. So we’re making sure we have a lot of built-in cushion time for Season 2 so we don’t cram anything in at the last minute."
In terms of development, all of the scripts for season 2 have already been written; the only changes they're likely to go through at this point is some fine-tuning over the course of pre-production--which, as Hissrich told IGN, will be continuing well into July of 2020. While addressing its release window, Hissrich also revealed a little about season 2's plot structure: namely, that season 2 is going to have a much more linear timeline than season 1. The previous season's nonlinear timeline was created so that Geralt's story could be told right alongside Yennefer and Ciri's since technically each of their stories unfolds in different years.
"What we’ve done by the end of The Witcher season 1 is bring everyone onto the same timeline, and their stories will start to intersect a lot more," Hissrich added. "So I do think that it’s going to be an easier season to follow. But I think more than that, the storytelling is a lot more focused."
Even though, given The Witcher's popularity, fans no doubt want to see new episodes as soon as humanly possible, it's hard to argue with Hissrich and the rest of the team's dedication to fully realizing their show without taking any shortcuts. After all, most people would generally agree that when it comes to shows like this, quality comes before quantity.
The Witcher season 1 is available to stream now on Netflix.
Source: IGN