Lauren Hissrich, the showrunner for Netflix’s The Witcher series, continues to be a fount of knowledge and wisdom. We’ve reached the point where she is a must-follow for any Witcher fans. She hinted at the show’s massive casting news before the ensemble became known. Now she’s giving us an inside look at crafting a multimillion dollar TV show.

In a rapid succession of Tweets, Hissrich described the intricacies and general issues with casting and creating a show. Thankfully, she confirms that it’s been fun to produce The Witcher, and that things are going as smoothly as possible.

 

I haven’t talked about writing in a long time, but it’s important to know what happens to all those words when they fly off the metaphorical page and collide with a very real production.

Most of the time, a lot changes. It has to. There are logistics to consider:

— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) October 19, 2018

Creative vision alignment. Director notes. Cast notes. Horse notes. Self-flagellating notes. Budget. Run time of episodes. Rain. Snow. Stage availability. Crew availability. Actor availability.

— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) October 19, 2018

(Side note: HUGE PROPS to anyone who’s cast before. It’s basically impossible. There’s talent to consider, obviously, but also interest, schedules, budget, negotiation, options, exclusivity, location, dozens of moving pieces to get ONE actor hired. And spoiler, we have hundreds.)

— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) October 19, 2018

Anyway, I take all those factors back to my computer, and start what we call the revision process. There’s a lot of cool coding in revisions, stars and pretty colors, but let’s be honest, often it’s where the fun dies. Writers — as we colloquially say — must kill our babies.

— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) October 19, 2018

Here’s the thing about #Witcher. No babies have died in this process.

— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) October 19, 2018

In the months since I wrote it, I’ve only done two sets of revisions on the pilot. There have been notes, of course, but everything’s fallen into place. And everyone on the ground here is aligned, committed to honoring our initial vision. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) October 19, 2018

Basically, it’s fun to produce this show. That’s what I geekily came to say.

❤️⚔️?

— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) October 19, 2018

Hissrich’s return to social media has yielded a bounty of stories and updates. Following the Ciri casting backlash, Hissrich briefly took a hiatus from Twitter. Upon her return shortly after, she provided proof that she’d completed the series finale script. She then gave sound advice on how to deal with all the haters in the world, of whom there are many. She’s been handling the trolling with deftness, and we’re all benefiting.

We have plenty of other Witcher related stuff to tide us over until the show debuts. We can always speculate on Geralt’s main foe in the show and analyze the cast. The franchise may own the strongest cosplay scene in all of gaming. A spinoff title, Thronebreaker, drops October 23, and a comic series, The Witcher: Of Flesh and Flame, debuts December 19. If you’re into the legal side of things, it seems like we may have a lawsuit brewing as well. Perhaps best of all, CD Projekt Red keeps dropping cool in-game secrets in honor the the franchise’s 11th anniversary.

We are still waiting to hear about the release date for Netflix’s The Witcher. When we do, we’ll be sure to keep you updated. To make sure you don’t miss a single story, follow DFTG on Facebook and Twitter.