When Henry Cavill announced his heartbreaking departure from The Witcher, speculation paved the way for the belief that his primary reason for leaving was the showrunners’ lack of respect toward the source material. But apparently, there’s more where that came from.
As if insulting the author by straying from the original story wasn’t bad enough, Netflix allegedly refused to pay Andrzej Sapkowski his rightful share in the form of royalties. As per sources, the Polish author of the popular fantasy novel series even admitted that it was his shortcoming to sell off the rights to his novel without taking all factors into consideration. And now he’s left to marinate in his regret as he fights for what is justly meant to be his.
Netflix is Reportedly Stealing From The Witcher Author
According to new reports, Andrzej Sapkowski recently came into a new licensing agreement with CD Projekt Red, the company that developed The Witcher video game series. Turns out that this new arrangement was the result of Sapkowski being denied a gigantic sum of $16 million in royalties.
The award-winning novelist sold the rights to The Witcher to CD Projekt back in 2008 for a meager total since he didn’t hold any confidence in its overall success. While the company offered him a fair share of the profits at that time, Sapkowski ended up demanding “all his money immediately.”
But after The Witcher video game series took off and became a massive hit instead, Sapkowski realized just what a grave mistake he’d made by handing over the license to the company. And now, as Netflix makes millions off of his material by creating The Witcher shows and spin-offs, the 74-year-old author is left helpless as he tries to reclaim his deserved share of the money.
Will Andrzej Sapkowski Get His Fair Share?
With a budget of about $70-80 million for the first season alone, Netflix spent a colossal sum on The Witcher. And while around 76 million households “chose to watch” season 1 of the fantasy/ adventure show, its second season ended up becoming even more successful after it hopped on the list of Netflix’s most-viewed shows of all time. Not to mention the $3.5 million paycheck they were handing to Cavill for his leading role in the show.
Taking all of that into consideration, it’s no secret that Netflix is minting stacks on stacks through The Witcher. So, it’s only fair to apportion at least a good chunk of the profits to the original author of the novel series because at the end of the day, without his relentless hard work, there would be no Geralt of Rivia, to begin with.
The Witcher can be streamed on Netflix.
Source: Recap Focus via YouTube
