THE WITCHER
Toss a coin to your animated Witcher for a new prequel movie
Animated prequel Nightmare Of The Wolf lays down the lore.
LONG BEFORE THE WITCHER’S Geralt, there was his mentor, Vesemir – and now, the cocky monster hunter is taking centre stage in The Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf. From director Kwang-ii Han, executive producer Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and screenwriter Beau Demayo, the animated origin story unfolds before the events of the TV series. The movie follows Vesemir as he faces the demons of his past, while contending with a rising new threat… with Geralt nowhere in sight.
“When you’re thinking of cracking the world of The Witcher without Geralt or Yennefer or Ciri, it’s like, ‘So, we’re going into Gotham without Batman, Robin or Jim Gordon. Got it,’” Demayo tells Red Alert. “What helped, and what was so natural when I started thinking about the script, is that The Witcher is ultimately about family. And it’s about surrogate family.
“As much as you look at Ciri and go, ‘Oh my god, how is she going to get along with someone like Geralt?’, you also go, ‘Who raised Geralt? How did he get along with that guy?’” he continues.
“It became natural to start finding a character different than Geralt. I kind of say Geralt grunts and Vesemir winks. They are very different people, but they are also removed.
Geralt doesn’t get involved because he’s scared, and he doesn’t want to cause more problems. Vesemir doesn’t want to get involved because he’s conceited and he’s always about himself.” When a politically-divided kingdom finds itself under siege from a ghastly beast, it’s Vesemir to the rescue… for some coin. The swashbuckling Witcher soon ends up on a perilous mission with the sorceress Tetra. The two don’t share the same point of view or allegiances, which ultimately brings them into conflict. But don’t simply lump Tetra into the villain category.
“It’s my goal for every bad guy in the Witcher world to fully believe, and have the audience
believe, what he or she is doing is the right thing,” Hissrich explains. “The right thing for their family, for their community, for the Continent. Tetra is a true believer. I don’t think there is a bone in her body that thinks she is doing something because she is intolerant. She actually believes that she is preserving the safety of these townspeople.”
Nightmare serves as more than a standalone adventure. The narrative delves into Witcher lore, including their upbringing, disturbing rite of passage and dirty little secrets. It also explores a time when the Witchers were celebrated as heroes, and the locals at the tavern would buy them beers.
“If Witchers are beloved on the Continent at this point, what does that do to their personalities?” Hissrich says. “What does that do to their brotherhood? Any viewer will notice that Vesemir is pretty charming and confident, and people like him. The ladies like him. His brothers like him.
“There’s a real joy to Nightmare when we first enter it. Vesemir is a man who is enthusiastic about his job and really excited for this destiny that he’s paving for himself. When we meet Vesemir in season two of the show, he’s a very different character and he’s carrying a lot of that history and all of those scars on his back. As a storyteller, I wanted to see how some of those scars happened.”
Nightmare’s anime razzle-dazzles, but it also offers some pretty gruesome images. Part of the opening sequence finds travellers – men, women and children – attacked and torn apart by a ghastly creature. Other scenes feature decapitations and eyeballs dangling from their sockets. Demayo says that they never intended to pull any punches.
“One of the first conversations director Kwang and I had was, this is not for kids,” Demayo offers. “This is adult animation. When we were looking at reference points, we were looking at Berserk. We were looking at Vampire Hunter D. Also, dark, fantasy horror anime that doesn’t hold back. It was pretty early that we were like, ‘We are not going to hold back’.”
Theo James voices the handsome and charismatic Vesemir to perfection. So now that the Divergent actor is part of the Witcher family, has anyone considered recruiting him for the live-action show?
“No, but thank you for giving me that idea,” Hissrich concludes. “Theo was our first pick for Vesemir. Beau and I went away separately, crafted lists of who we thought would be best, and Theo was on both of our lists. We were so grateful to have him on the project. He really influenced how we imagined Vesemir.” BC
The Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf is on Netflix now.
One of the first conversations director Kwang and I had was, this is not for kids… This is adult animation