The Witcher producer says "painful" simplification of the books' story is necessary for wider audiences
The Witcher producer Tomasz Bagiński has reacted to the ongoing backlash that the Netflix series has faced for changing details from its source material. As many will be aware, the show is based on Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski’s series of books. While it broadly follows these, some elements have been changed, which has been a source of ire from some fans.
However, Bagiński has now opened up about the reasoning behind this – and it’s an unusual excuse, to say the least. In an interview with Wyborcza (via Redanian Intelligence), he shared that it was all about making things simpler for the wider audiences who consume Netflix shows.
"I had the same perceptual block when I presented Hardkor 44 [a never-made variation on the Warsaw Uprising] abroad years ago and tried to explain: there was an uprising against Germany, but the Russians were across the river, and on the German side there were also soldiers from Hungary or Ukraine," he told the publication when asked about the changes. "For Americans, it was completely incomprehensible, too complicated, because they grew up in a different historical context, where everything was arranged: America is always good, the rest are the bad guys. And there are no complications.
"When a series is made for a huge mass of viewers, with different experiences, from different parts of the world, and a large part of them are Americans, these simplifications not only make sense, they are necessary. It’s painful for us, and for me too, but the higher level of nuance and complexity will have a smaller range, it won’t reach people. Sometimes it may go too far, but we have to make these decisions and accept them."
This isn’t the first time that Bagiński has called out audiences either. In
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