’s brand new third season hasn’t had the best reception, and one of the show’s producers says young people and Americans are to blame.
The fantasy series, starring Henry Cavill, began in 2019 and was immensely popular with viewers on the streaming platform at the time.
However, after the series moved away from the wealth of source material written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, fans have grown more impatient.
This was compounded when the series at the conclusion of the recently-released third season.
Now, according to reports from US-based TV analytics websites, the third season premiere has seen a 15% drop in viewership compared to season two.
In response, executive producer Tomek Baginski has said that, while it’s ‘painful’ to lose viewers, moving away from the books was 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,’ he told.
He continued, speaking to the Polish news website: ‘Sometimes [the complexity] may go too far, but we have to make these decisions and accept them.’
Baginski then referenced an unfinished movie he once worked on in the early 2010s called Hardkor 44, which was a sci-fi war movie set during World War 2.
‘For Americans, [Hardkor 44] was completely incomprehensible, too complicated, because they grew up in a different historical context,’ he argued.
‘When a series is made for a huge mass of viewers – and a large part of them are Americans – these simplifications not only make sense, they are necessary.’
‘When it comes to shows, the younger the public is, the logic of the plot is less significant. They grew up on TikTok and YouTube, they jump from video to video.’
Despite the difficulties currently surrounding the show, The Witcher is , with Liam Hemsworth taking over from Cavill.
‘Liam’s been down to the studio, we’ve walked him through preliminary concept ideas for things. He’s very excited,’ a production designer told Metro.co.uk.
The Witcher is available to stream on Netflix.
