A recent casting announcement revealed that Netflix’s The Witcher television show which cast Henry Cavill to be Geralt of Rivia is looking at casting a BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) actress to play the lead role of Ciri. Ciri was originally described in the books as being very pale and fair skinned with ashen grey hair and green emerald eyes.
The casting announcement received a ton of backlash as many fans were extremely unhappy that Netflix would be race-swapping the iconic Witcher character. It had many folks wondering if [easyazon_link identifier=”0316438979″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]The Witcher Saga[/easyazon_link] writer Andrzej Sapkowski had approved of the decision to race-swap Ciri given that Netflix cites him as a creative consultant for the show.
However, in an interview with Portuguese website JPN last December, Sapkowski appears to definitively answer just how involved he is with the Netflix series. Using Google Translate Sapkowski states:
“In all adaptations, be it the first or the last, I am never involved in its development. From my point of view, the book is the book and adaptation is adaptation. As Kipling said about East and West: ‘This is East and West is West, and the two will never meet.’ The adaptation and the original will never be found. Never. Adapters must be fitted. That’s all I have to say about this because, as you may know, Netflix has signed a contract with me where it is explicitly listed that any production information I disclose will result in a severe financial penalty. Which is good for me, because I do not know shit. So I can not say anything.”
He was asked a follow-up question specifically asking if he was not involved in the Netflix production. Sapkowski answered:
“Absolutely. And it will always be so. Netflix has forgotten to include my personal opinion on the contract and my personal opinion is that I do not know, and will never want to know, anything about the production.”
That definitely sounds like he has nothing to do with the Netflix production whatsoever and doesn’t want anything to do with the Netflix production.
Sapkowski also noted that he will more than likely not be watching the Netflix series either:
“Well, I did not play the games because I did not like it or because I was against them. No, I do not have time for games. I’m a writer. Later this year, in England, I met a guy who does role-playing games (RPGs) in books. Something like: ‘Do this and you go to page 12.’ He told me that for him it was like writing so many books at the same time. I told him that, for me, that was not to write a book at all. You can not say that it is writing a book because when you write a book you have to know how to start and how to end it. Write something like ‘If you kill this orc you go to page 340’ is not the correct way to do it. It is not written, it is not literature at all.”
Showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich has stated that Sapkowski has seen her take on the Witcher and liked it.
Mr. Sapkowski liked my take on his books.
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) May 10, 2018
She also said that he’s “part of the team,” but confirmed he “did not wish to write scripts on [the] show.”
Not pictured: Andrzej Sapkowski. He did not wish to write scripts on our show — he reminded us he’s a novelist, not a screenwriter — but he’s absolutely part of the team.
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) May 8, 2018
She also said he was part of the creative team:
Then rest easy. There are several Polish people on the creative team — starting with Mr Sapkowski.
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) May 8, 2018
What do you make of Andrzej Sapkowski’s comments? Do you think he should have a bigger role in the Netflix series given that they appear to be race-swapping Ciri?