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The Witcher Kids Show Announced by Netflix

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

The Witcher might be a property that is largely aimed at mature audiences, but those over at Netflix are soon going to look to change that perception. As part of a series of new announcements involving The Witcher that took place during Netflix's TUDUM event today, it was revealed that the streaming platform is working on a new TV series that will be aimed at all audiences.

Although not much is currently known about this new show, The Witcher showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich announced today that the series is in the works right now and will be of a much different tone. Hissrich said specifically that the show will be "fun-filled" but didn't go on to offer up any more details on the project. Whether or not it will be a TV series that is of the live-action or animated variety also remains to be seen.



For now, there remains very little that we know about this new kids' show set within The Witcher universe. As of this writing, it seems likely that we won't start to learn more about what form it will take until some point in 2022.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

The Witcher showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich has confirmed that the new series for kids and family will actually be animated.

The confirmation that the kids and family series will be animated comes out of an EW interview with Hissrich where she also offered new details on the series like the fact that it will draw inspiration from the stories behind the stories of the Witcher novels by author Andrzej Sapkowski.

"That process came out a ton of conversations, which of course broached, if we do a kids and family show, is it going to be The Witcher at all?" Hissrich told EW. "How do we do The Witcher without all of the gore, all of the violence, all of the brutality that we see in the Witcher world? Those things to me are the bells and whistles of this world. If you peel away those layers, you come back to basic tales of morality. That's what all of Sapkowski's short stories are. They're morality tales, they're fairytales. They're based on a bunch of folklore and mythology, the exact sort of tales that Grimms' fairytales do, that frankly Disney movies do. So, it was about, how do we take those same fundamental lessons, those same tales, keep them in the world of The Witcher, but make them more appropriate for kids?"
 
Great, I made the mistake of starting the existing Witcher series on Netflix with my daughter and ... well I thought that it was too "adult" for a 7 years old at the time.
tenor.gif

You screwed up on the research big time.
 

j0hnnix

Member
Mom, I want a viper silver sword so I can cut down that evil griffin next door. Son, that's your friends mom.
 

CamHostage

Member
perfect material for kids, just like aliens and robocop







It's not that new. It's just weird that somebody's doing it now in today's social climate. (Alternately, it was just as wrong back then for there to have been cartoons for R-rated franchises... probably.) There was a time when Rambo had a cartoon, Toxic Avenger had a cartoon, Conan had a cartoon, there was a Police Academy cartoon, Highlander, sort of Starship Troopers...
 
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Braag

Member
This is kinda weird. The books were not only violent but had a lot of fucked up stuff in them too.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Sure, why not.

The Witcher is brutal as fuck, but the world of the Witcher doesn't need to be.

I can see a kid's show with a young Ciri and Johnny the godling getting into all kinds of shenanigans.

images
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
Great, I made the mistake of starting the existing Witcher series on Netflix with my daughter and ... well I thought that it was too "adult" for a 7 years old at the time.

a kids show on the same topic can only be good.
Sarcasm?

The very first paragraph of first Witcher book has vivid description of Geralt having sex. This stuff was always for mature people, that's part of Witcher's charm - it's gritty Eastern Europe with magic and swords.
 
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jason10mm

Gold Member
I can see it. They want a Harry Potter Hogwarts style show and this is an easy way to do it. The witcher cartoon out now is a good template, minus all the kids getting killed all over the place :p But the core concept of the Witcher short stories is to show the HORRIBLE "real" events that get distilled and diluted into kids fables. This is a bizarre reversal of the entire point :p

I just wish they would respect the source material more and not rub over all the soviet occupation/eastern european struggles and history that make the witcher world unique from most western fantasy. But it's netflix so I'm sure they are already working that checklist.

Can't wait to see what the Trial of Grasses is in PG. They need a REALLY obvious metaphor for kid death, like the kids that "lose" go and ring a bell and are never heard from again, so the adults can appreciate what is really happening. I'm also curious how they will handle magic users. Are we gonna get hunchback Yenn again or what?
 

Fbh

Member
Yeah definitely weird.
I guess it could be something like a kid friendly Witcher academy without all the child deaths or something.

Still weird though. I get it with something like LOTR where the kids can then watch the movies as they get a bit older. But here it would be straight from the kids show to the show that's full of sex and murder, the books which are full of sex and murder or the games which are full of sex and murder.
 

GymWolf

Member
Netflix trying to squeeze blood from stones when they happen to have a decent series is nothing new.
 
Well it was kind of expected. I mean I don't see how it will convert, considering even the books were targeted at a mature audience, since it is not a fun world to be in. But it is nothing new, if something is really popular, they will try to reach younger audiences. I remember back in the days when they made a cartoon of tales from the crypt, which is targeted at a mature audience. They make even kids shows from franchises, which can be enjoyed by nearly all ages (Ghostbusters back in the day, Star Trek Prodigy these days...).
 

Holammer

Member
There's a line of children's books set in the 40k universe.
I mean, I haven't read them... But who thought it was a good idea? Creatively bankrupt companies smelling profit, that's who.

Braver souls than me can head over to the black library and buy them all.

warhammer-adventures-claws-of-the-genestealer.jpg
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Alongside The Witcher Netflix show, there's also now a Witcher anime called The Witcher: Nightmare of The Wolf and a The Witcher prequel show in the works. However, the oddest Witcher spinoff in production is a Witcher kid-friendly show. The Witcher Showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich explains exactly how that will work.
 
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