Beau DeMayo, one of the writers behind the Netflix original series The Witcher, has opened up about the creative team’s decision to develop Nightmare of the Wolf as an anime movie, saying its a story that suits the medium.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, DeMayo, who started out as an assistant and executive at Disney, working in animation, stressed the importance of finding the best means of telling a story on screen, as he explained why they had chosen to make Nightmare of the Wolf in an animated format rather than live-action.
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“I was aware when Lauren [Hissrich] came and asked me to write it, what we could do in animation that you cannot do in live-action,” he said. “There is not necessarily always parity between those two mediums. There are things that you can animate in an animated form that will look so amazing, so badass, that if you did it in action, in live-action, it’s just going to look goofy or it’s just going to register as a little false to the human eye.”
DeMayo added how there is “a grace and an art form to animation, and especially anime, that allows a different flavour,” explaining how it provides a new realm to tell their story, charting the origins of Vesemir, aka Geralt of Rivia’s mentor and father figure, as he teased, “what is the type of story that we could tell that we could never tell in our live-action scope?”
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He also admitted that the creators of the prequel movie were presented with some “exciting” storytelling possibilities after they made the decision to step away from the live-action medium. He even shared more details about what to expect from the script, saying there will be “something with magic and monsters and adventure and romance.”
“And the script itself, there are certain things it takes advantage of in terms of animation that only animation can do,” he revealed. “I think that’s what’s the most exciting thing that I’m waiting for fans to see… it is a story we could not have told in live-action in any way, shape or form. At least not with an incredible burden on production, I will say that.”
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Studio Mir, the renowned Korean animation studio behind The Legend of Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defender, are currently hard at work on The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, though it is unknown whether the new movie will be released before or after the return of Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri in Season 2 of The Witcher in 2021.
For more on Netflix’s The Witcher, read about the fantasy elements that we can expect to see in the second season of the live-action series, find out who has been cast as Vesemir in the upcoming episodes and check out all of the other recent casting announcements, including the addition of more Witchers.
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com Why The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf Is an Anime, Not Live-Action