Throughout development of The Witcher, showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich made it abundantly clear that the Netflix series would remain faithful to Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski's novel series. The few clips and images that have been released certainly support that. That being said, readers and gamers familiar with the world of the Witcher still have a few surprises to look forward to.

Hissrich and executive producer Tomek Bagiński recently sat down to break down the most recent trailer, which briefly featured a clip of a ghoul-like creature, prompting the showrunner to explain, "Monsters are huge in The Witcher... we think there's a great element of surprise for existing fans who don't know what stories we're playing with and what monsters we're playing with," before revealing, "There's a couple of new monsters that we've come up with based on a lot of sort of Polish folklore."

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So it appears that there will be a number of monsters in the series that longtime fans will not recognize. However, seeing as how they are based on Polish folklore -- just as Sapkowski's creatures are -- these series exclusive monsters should blend right in with the others.

As Hissrich explained, monsters are a significant aspect of Geralt's world. In Sapkowski's novels, they often pave the way for moments of deep character exploration or discussion concerning the more prominent themes of their respective stories. If the upcoming series does adhere to the source material in that regard, it will be interesting to see how that affects its telling of Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer's stories.

The Witcher stars Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg, Freya Allan as Ciri and Joey Batey as Jaskier. The series will be available to stream on Netflix starting December 20.

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