‘The Witcher’ Showrunner Claps Back at Criticism: “No One’s Taking the Books Away”
Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich, the showrunner of Netflix’s The Witcher, has responded to criticism of the series, emphasizing that fans can enjoy all versions of the franchise. She explained that the books, video games, and the show can coexist without one replacing the other.
“You have book fans, you have video game fans, and then you have fans that knew nothing about this world until the show existed. And the truth is we can’t choose one audience. We have to remember what we are doing, which is a television show,” Schmidt-Hissrich told reporters.
She said adapting the books for TV requires careful choices because there is limited time to tell the story. “It is different than any other genre in any other form that you could tell this story, and we have to make the choices for that. We have eight hours every season to tell these stories, and we’re never going to be able to tell everything from the books.”
Season 1, for example, combined short stories from the books into a single narrative. “You can’t just tell unrelated adventures in a season of television. You have to start to weave them together. You have to understand how these adventures lead our characters to be where they are meant to be. And so we had to start crafting… at that point it was connective tissue,” she said.
Schmidt-Hissrich added that knowing the show’s endpoint early helped the team shape the story. “Netflix picked up Season 4 and Season 5 at the same time, so we also had to write ourselves to that particular ending. So again, you make choices.”
She reassured fans that the original works remain untouched. “One of the things that I’ve talked a lot to the author about and a lot to fans about is that the books still exist. No one is taking the books away. No one is taking the video games away. I think everyone can have their version of The Witcher and this is this version.”
Regarding the pressure of ending with Season 5, Schmidt-Hissrich said she felt fortunate. “We’re not going to go past the books. We have the ending… There’s always pressure of something ending, but for us it just felt like an enormous celebration, which is we got to do it – we made it this far.”
She reflected on the privilege of working on five seasons. “A lot of TV shows don’t get the chance to do five seasons, and it’s been such a privilege to be part of it from the beginning and to grow with it. I think we all expected to be very sad at the end, and instead we were thrilled because we made it.”
The Continent has shifted, and Ciri's at the centre of it. The Witcher Season 4 drops on 30th October. pic.twitter.com/mEIeSg9CZg
— The Witcher (@witchernetflix) October 7, 2025
Seasons 4 and 5 were filmed back-to-back and will cover the last three books by Andrzej Sapkowski: Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow, and Lady of the Lake.
Season 4 premieres on Netflix on October 30 and introduces Liam Hemsworth as Geralt, taking over the role from Henry Cavill. Cavill’s exit and other changes have led some fans to criticize the series for straying from the books and games.
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