The Witcher TV series has been controversial in changing some of the important plot elements from the novel series. The show's producers defended the move, saying that it is necessary to bring the live-action adaptation to life - but they didn't enjoy making those decisions.
According to a report by Redanian Intelligence, executive producer Tomasz Bagiński said that it was "painful for us" to make changes to the source material. Bagiński said that the story for The Witcher could not be adapted directly from the Andrzej Sapkowski novels because it does not make for good TV.
"When a series is made for a huge mass of viewers, with different experiences, from different parts of the world, and a large part of them are Americans, these simplifications not only make sense, they are necessary," Bagiński said.
"It's painful for us, and for me too, but the higher level of nuance and complexity will have a smaller range; it won't reach people. Sometimes it may go too far, but we have to make these decisions and accept them."
"There are a lot of understandable reasons why controversial decisions are made, but the viewer does not have this context, so sometimes it hurts because something was better in the book." Bagiński explained that the nature of making TV and having production deadlines also leads to other issues that result in changes to the source material.