WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of The Witcher, now streaming on Netflix.
Paul Bullion, who plays Lambert on The Witcher, defended the shocking death of a fan-favorite character in Season 2 of the Netflix drama.
In "Kaer Morhen," the second episode of Season 2, the Witcher Eskel is killed after only being introduced earlier in the episode. Eskel features in many important plot lines in The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski that the Netflix adaptation has yet to tackle, and Bullion says he understands why some fans of the series might have been disappointed at the surprising death. "I 100 percent knew that there'd be fans that wouldn't be happy about it," Bullion told The Direct. "He's a fan favorite. You can see it all in the fan art and the fan fiction involving the Witchers: Eskel, Lambert, and Coen. I think if you took any of those three Witchers away, excluding Geralt as he's the lead, it was going to be a shock factor."
Bullion also understands the importance of keeping the audience guessing, however. "Me personally as a storyteller, I think if you're going to do a TV adaptation, I think it's good to keep the audience guessing," he said. "Even if you are a Witcher lore expert, I think it's great to throw a curveball. I found out when I read the scripts at the start, and I was going through like, are they going to bring him back magically somehow?"
Ultimately, Bullion thinks the screenwriters of The Witcher made the correct decision. "I think it's necessary in TV adaptations to let the audience know that nobody can guess," he said. "I think even people that are fans of Eskel, to be affected by it whether you're filled with sadness or shock, isn't it great to watch something and be like, 'I did not see that coming'? If I'm watching something, I love it when something completely sideswipes me out of nowhere. I think it was a brave decision and I 100 percent back the writers in that."
Such deviations from the source material and inconsistencies in the storytelling have been cited as reasons why Season 2 of The Witcher has a lower audience score than Season 1 on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the muted reaction to Season 2, plans for Season 3 of The Witcher and beyond are already in progress. A deleted scene from Season 2 teases a rift in the Brotherhood of Sorcerers, a storyline that is likely to be of great importance in Season 3.
Source: The Direct