It’s no secret that The Witcher trilogy is not exactly a direct adaptation of the books. Much of what happened in all three games– and even in the upcoming Witcher 4 is CD Projekt RED’s take after they acquired the copyright from book author Andrej Sapkowski. In fact, the Netflix series is the more direct adaptation of The Witcher, by technicality. Still, Witcher 4 devs are assuring some worried fans that the upcoming sequel won’t borrow from the Netflix series.
In an interview with GAMES.CH, Sebastian Kalemba (Game Director) and Małgorzata Mitrega (Executive Producer) answered some rather important questions about The Witcher 4. One of the most crucial ones that they addressed was whether Witcher 4 was inspired or will be taking inspiration from what the Netflix adaptation did.
Here’s Sebastian Kalemba’s reply:
“To be fair, the way how generally franchises work, there’s always some synergy between trans-media, right? It always works this way. Every single IP (intellectual property) you see, there’s always this synergy that helps the franchise bring in newcomers.
But I don’t think that we rely on it anyhow. We are doing our [own take on our] games,” said Sebastian Kalemba.
Małgorzata Mitrega supplemented Kalemba’s explanation, that while they took inspiration from Andrej Sapkowski’s books, The Witcher 4 is what they want to tell to the world. They aren’t totally discounting the existence of the Netflix series, of course, and they might sometimes look to it for inspiration.
Here’s the full interview:
The Witcher 4 Also Won’t Rely on the Books too Much
Małgorzata Mitrega also explains that The Witcher 4 also won’t be reliant on the previous trilogy. Any new or budding fan who wants to join in and play the game can do so without feeling lost or feeling like they should have played the first three games.
It’s worth noting that the first three games also had a different protagonist named Geralt of Rivia and are tonally different from the upcoming Witcher 4. In The Witcher 4, players will then be assuming the role of Geralt of Rivia‘s surrogate daughter, Ciri.
Meanwhile, Netflix’s The Witcher series has also made the decision to put Ciri forth as the show’s protagonist in place of Geralt after actor Geralt’s actor, Henry Cavill, quit the show due to creative differences.
