The Witcher: Anya Chalotra confirms Yennefer’s backstory will be explored

The Witcher star Anya Chalotra and showrunner Lauren Hissrick confirmed the Netflix series will explore Yennefer’s backstory.

After a great weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, fans around the world are learning a little bit more about Netflix’s The Witcher. The series just released a new trailer during a Hall H panel from SDCC, and the cast and creator Lauren Hissrich shared a bunch of new information about the series.

During a press roundtable at SDCC, Anya Chalotra, who stars as Yennefer in the series, was asked about she was excited for fans to see in the first season. Chalotra joked that she’s excited for “the whole thing,” but she also mentioned she’s excited for fans to see Yennefer’s “backstory” in the season.

As one of the three leads, along with Geralt (Henry Cavill) and Ciri (Freya Allan), Yennefer is crucial to this story, and to make this story feel as real as possible, viewers need to see her backstory to fully understand the character.

It sounds like this show is definitely going to do that. Hissrich confirmed during the roundtable that it was important to “tell the stories of these individuals before they meet and sort of allow them to grow in their own space.”

That’s going to be really interesting to see, especially for fans of the books and stories by Andrzej Sapkowski. For those who don’t know the books, Yennefer has a hunchback and it causes problems for her – we’ll leave it at that. Later, she becomes a powerful sorceress who makes herself look a lot younger than she actually is using magic.

Hissrich and Chalotra confirmed that will be the case for this character in the Netflix series. And, based on the trailer shared at SDCC, it’s clear that we will see Yennefer’s journey, or at least part of it.

When asked about the difficulty in casting the show’s three lead characters, Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri, Hissrich dropped an interesting tidbit about Yennefer’s backstory during a press roundtable at SDCC.

“Our three leads were all equally hard, but for really different reasons. Yennefer, for instance, is a sorceress who’s actually quite old but looks very young, but has the experience of someone who’s lived for a long time. But also, we knew we were going to be telling a little bit of her backstory,” Hissrich said. “So I wanted someone who could portray her at actually a younger age, as well. And that’s a really, really difficult thing to find, someone who can look young and yet have the life experience.”

Again, this should be a super exciting development for fans and those who haven’t seen the series. I think it shows Hissrich and the writers are committed to making a well-rounded fantasy show. This show could have become a monster-hunting show that only embraces Geralt of Rivia and the big action sequences. That’s not what’s going to happen, and I think that’s a really good thing moving forward.

The show will have legs to stand on should it get renewed for two, three or more seasons, and I hope that’s the goal!

The Witcher still doesn’t have a release date on Netflix yet. We do know it’s coming later this year, though. Stay tuned for more news about the upcoming Netflix series!