Casting Rumors Surrounding Ciri in THE WITCHER Series Sparks Polish Fans To Fight For Proper Representation
Some information regarding the casting of the character Ciri in Netflix’s The Witcher series recently leaked and the fans have been going nuts over it. That casting leak stated that producers were looking to cast a woman of color in the role for Ciri, who is traditionally of Polish decent.
Social media got so hot over the topic that it caused writer, producer, and showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich to take a leave of absence from Twitter. There was then a conflicting report that came out on Reddit saying that they were looking for a white actress to play a young Ciri in the series, which would stay true to the source material.
Fans of The Witcher property seem to be split on the matter, but the Polish community are speaking out against the rumored casting direction for Ciri, some of them are even saying that it’s a “molestation” of their culture. They feel that The Witcher is an opportunity for proper slavic representation and they aren’t happy with Hollywood’s liberal agenda.
Here are a few tweets that mirror a lot of what others are saying:
The people of Poland want our story told the way it was written. You foreigners that want something different can change another story. We’ve waited too long for this as a people to have it molested by foreigners.
— Jim (@LFCKPK) September 13, 2018
Westerners are trying to destroy our culture. Never trust western media and stop supporting their propaganda. They will disrespect your culture and then they will call you a racist for defending it. #Netflix #Witcher #witchernetflix #Ciri pic.twitter.com/FIEgRwfdUf
— Ręce Boga 🇵🇱 (@Slava_Narodowi) September 9, 2018
Slavic culture finally gets a chance at some good representation in the West that goes beyond the tired tropes that Hollywood has thrown at us for decades and y'all decide to mess with that by making Ciri blatantly non-Slavic? #Witcher #netflix #ciri
— Godfrey (@satansdankuncle) September 8, 2018
Now, Hissrich did previously say this about casting the series:
Will I move through the book and start changing people’s cultural heritage or ethnic makeup or gender because I’m feeling really “liberal” that day? No. That’s ridiculous and contrary to what ANY writer would do, because we are storytellers. Story comes first.
So, seeing reports of casting a woman of color obviously came as a surprise to a lot of hardcore fans that are looking for a proper adaptation of the classic book series from Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.
While various other groups are looking for representation in Hollywood entertainment these days, the Polish community wants theirs as well.
When previously talking about the show, Hissrich assured fans that it would not be a watered down version of the story.
The Witcher chronicles monster hunters who, with training and body modification, develop supernatural abilities at a young age to battle deadly beasts. Executive producers Sean Daniel and Jason Brown previously released the following statement offering some additional insight into the story:
“The Witcher stories follow an unconventional family that comes together to fight for truth in a dangerous world. The characters are original, funny and constantly surprising and we can’t wait to bring them to life at Netflix, the perfect home for innovative storytelling.”
It was recently reported that Henry Cavill would take on the role of Geralt in the series. With all these conflicting reports going around, it’s going to be interesting to see how the rest of the cast comes together.
What do you think about all of these reports regarding the casting of Ciri and how the Polish fans are reacting to it?
