The Witcher has frequently been criticised by fans for not better sticking to the books and games it's based on. As a result, no one was overly shocked when former writer Beau DeMayo (Moon Knight) revealed that some of his fellow scribes on the Netflix series would openly mock the source material, creating even more bad feeling towards the show.
That's only been exacerbated with the news Henry Cavill is leaving The Witcher, while Liam Hemsworth stepping in to play Geralt of Rivia in the already confirmed fourth season has been similarly poorly received.
The Witcher showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich has recently been doing the rounds to promote The Witcher: Blood Origin, but expertly dodged many of the questions about the main show's future. However, she recently hit back at followers on Instagram (via SFFGazette.com) who pointed to her being among those who dislike Andrzej Sapkowski's novels and CD Projekt Red's games.
"I think if you watch...any interview I’ve ever done...including those with [Andrzej Sapkowski]...you’ll see that I am quite a fan of the books [and the games]," Hissrich responded before taking aim at DeMayo's claims. "Do you believe...that when one person states something as fact, that it’s therefore fact? This particular thing is not a fact."
"I love the books. I’m shit at the games, but that’s me, not them," she continued. "I’ve never mocked the books...The books are my entire livelihood, I have a great relationship with Mr. Sapkowski, and writers rooms are sacred and safe and — more than anything — supportive spaces. Don’t believe everything you read."
She later added, "I have great respect for Beau, and the episodes he wrote! The Striga episode is one of my favorites. He wrote the one where people came to Kaer Morhen and Eskel died, which had a lot of backlash, but he was brave in telling the story he wanted to tell. It takes a lot of balls to do that. I respect that."
We can't fault Hissrich for attempting some level of damage control, but it's not coming across too well and appears to be doing little to appease angry and disappointed fans.
We don't anticipate Netflix pulling the plug on The Witcher, but if this upcoming spin-off doesn't attract an audience and fans tune out of Cavill's final season after that disappointing second batch of episodes...well, we're not 100% convinced season 4 will end up happening (sorry about that, Liam).