The Witcher
Development of the Witcher Netflix series is moving ahead at a steady pace. Head creator of the show Lauren Hissrich has been busy filling us all in via Twitter. As we previously reported the first seasons pilot episode is written. The most recent updates, however, are about the progress of the rest of the season as it stands.
The creative team recently added a host of new writers, including, but not limited to:
- Jenny Klein, who wrote for Jessica Jones
- Declan de Barra, writer of The Originals
- Sneha koorse, writer of Daredevil
Solid talent indeed, and Hissrich seems fairly proud of that fact!
I can’t imagine a better day.
The #Witcher writers’ room opened today, and it was full of ideas and banter and cupcakes and creativity and darkness and champagne and this hilarious picture that’s better than any of the posed group selfies I attempted.
It’s happening. ♥️ pic.twitter.com/jUn9MPwf9L
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) May 8, 2018
Hissrichs Twitter Storm
In her most recent updates for the Witcher Netflix series, Hissrich has been informing the community of the team’s creative processes. The first step is to consult the documentation for the series such as character information, terms, and themes. Secondly, the team converse on the central arc of each episode and break down each character and their motivations. Then, as she lets us know, each writer gets to pen their own episode before it’s brought to the writer’s room for the team to dissect and work on. Then we have the prototype script read over by the director of the episode and the actors involved.
The whole thing seems a fairly coherent process. It’s obvious that Netflix is taking the production of the show seriously, and Hissrichs previous guess of a 2020 release date could well end up being through. The Witcher Netflix series could well be built up to take over Game of Thrones vacant… throne, ahem. With that behemoth set to wind things up over the next few years, the dark fantasy genre is going to remain popular afterward, and Netflix will aim to capitalise.
You can check out the full(lengthy) list of tweets from Hissrich on the Witcher Netflix series down below, and you can keep up to date with the best in gaming here at Gameir.
“First things first, I welcome the writers. I explain that we’re more than a team. We’re a family. We’re the foundation for hundreds of people who will make this tv show, and we’re not only gonna be great storytellers, we’re gonna be fucking great human beings along the way.
“Then we get down to work. Before the room opens, the incredibly smart [writers assistant Clare Higgins] has put together documents that outline the stories, terms, characters, and themes I want to cover in season one. There are maps. There are pictures. There is a special font she chose just for us.
“Yes, the writers have read the books, but these documents focus our discussions on day 1. We move fast, and I don’t bend on the schedule. There are due dates, and we must respect them so that everyone else can do their jobs when we’re done doing ours. (TV is teamwork, period).
“With that, we start talking. And talk and talk and talk. We write the things we say on dry erase boards. Often the lowest level writer does it, but sometimes it’s the person with the best handwriting. (That’s always been me, until now mwah ha ha ha ha. Now I sit in a chair.)
“We break down characters first: who they are, what they want, who they’ll do it with. Organically, those emotional moments collide with plot. Note: some writers are better at plot machinations. Some are better at emotional arcs. Some do action. Some do sex. It takes all types.
“Then we start breaking it down into episodes — where would this plot or emotion fit in the eight episodes we have? What’s a fun and unexpected beginning to the season? Where do we want it to end, and how does that keep an audience’s interest until season two? [praying emoji]
“We decide on something. Then we change it an hour later because we find something else even better that highlights this character’s journey, or this super cool monster that’s just PERFECT for this episode. We do this all as a room. But TWIST: we write episodes as individuals.
“I ask the writers to ‘own’ their episodes: they bear the responsibility of ushering it from a kernel of an idea to fully-executed script. I oversee the whole process, but each writer needs to be fully invested in the vision and quality, or the show doesn’t work. (Again: teamwork)
“From there, it’s much like I talked about at the pilot phase. A writer writes, the room reads, we give notes. The writer writes again, we pass it on to producers, they give notes. The writer writes again, often working with me individually, to fine tune and hone and perfect.
“And then we do it again with the director, or actor. For me, a script is a living, breathing thing. I’m not God. I don’t determine All Things. TV doesn’t have space for ego or assholes, because without all the people doing their jobs, it collapses. We all own it. Together.
“And that, friends, is how we write. Bring it on.”
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