The Witcher Season 2 is right around the corner, but that is not the only adventure in the universe that fans of the franchise should get excited about. Showrunner of the Netflix series Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who recently sat down for an interview with Entertainment Weekly, also oversees all The Witcher spin-off projects and went on to give some details about the next anime film in the series.
When describing the new film, Hissrich said there aren't any concrete plans for a story yet, adding that she has "no idea what it will be, ‘cause we’re just now getting started on it. I hope the anime is a bit more of a stand alone project that will bring new eyes onto the franchise but also to be able to stand out there on its own."
The first anime film in the series, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, was released earlier this year on Netflix in August and became the first expansion of the franchise past the main series on the streamer. A prequel to the main story, it introduced Theo James as the voice of Vesemir and told the origins of the witcher who would later become the mentor of Henry Cavill's Geralt of Rivia. Audiences will see the character in live-action in the upcoming second season of The Witcher, portrayed by Killing Eve actor Kim Bodnia.
In the same interview, Hissrich said the two writers on the upcoming film have “been on the staff from the beginning," similar to Beau DeMayo, who worked on the story for Nightmare of the Wolf. "Everyone is getting to work on the pieces of projects that they’re passionate about," Hissrich added. "That has been really, really fun to see, allowing people to own parts of The Witcher themselves in the same way that I am."
Also announced this year was the development of a kids' show in the Witcher universe, which Hissrich confirms will also be animated but will be taking a much different route than any other project in the franchise:
"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? 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?"
In a franchise as massive as The Witcher, it is not a bad idea to expand its brand to as wide an audience as possible, since the main series is rooted in such mature themes. Whether it is the popular video game series or the main Netflix show, further expansion on the lore has only strengthened the universe thus far. For all the latest Witcher news, including the upcoming anime film and animated series, stick with Collider.