Netflix phenomenon The Witcher is a dark, violent, raunchy, foul-mouthed and often gruesome series set in a richly-detailed fantasy universe where monsters, witches, mages and more exist, with Geralt of Rivia offering out his services to dispatch any and all threats if the money is right.
Hardly the stuff children and families can huddle around the television and watch together, then, but that’s what we’re getting. As you’d expect, there was plenty of backlash on the internet at seeing The Witcher watered down to appeal to kids, with the responses running the entire gamut from gatekeeping to outright fury.
As the architect of the entire universe, you’d have to imagine that Lauren Schmidt Hissrich knows what she’s doing. In a recent Twitter thread, the executive producer addressed several of the criticisms head-on, which you can see below.
Having overseen two seasons of the main show with a third on the way, animated movie Nightmare of the Wolf and live-action prequel Blood Origin, Schmidt Hissrich holds the keys to The Witcher kingdom on Netflix, and audiences have bought into it. A family-friendly project is certainly an unusual avenue to take, but based on her track record do far, we should be giving her the benefit of the doubt for now.