Fans who have only met Jaskier through Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ clearly saw that he had a way with the ladies. However, in Andrzej Sapkowski‘s novels, the character didn’t just do well with women but was a huge womanizer. Not having Joey Batey play the character in that regard was a conscious choice by showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich. The change came forward when Hissrich and Batey sat down to talk about the character and they realized they could still introduce a lead who loves women but doesn’t have to be in a toxic relationship with them.
The details of the change came up in an interview with Vulture where Hissrich shared:
“How do we take a character who loves women and not play him as a womanizer? We didn’t want to play him as someone who is just trolling around, taking advantage of helpless women. The solution was to not surround him with a bunch of helpless women who are standing around waiting to be taken advantage of.
So as soon as you up the strength of the female characters in the show, then you will immediately up the strength of the male characters as well. This is something that is so misunderstood. Many think that if you have strong female characters, then obviously the men are weak. No. It makes men stronger too. Jaskier loves people. He loves women, especially. But what he loves is women who love him as well.
It was easy for Joey to portray. Joey is someone who has a lot of natural joy in life. That’s what we tapped into for the character. What I love about this decision the most is that it’s taken away this idea of a sleazy, womanizing guy, and made him into someone that you root for. You root for him to find his true love … if that’s what he’s looking for.”
Hissrich may have just revealed that Jaskier could be in search of love in the second season. Previously, the showrunner also revealed that in the first season “Jaskier starts to think about what he needs and wants in the world, and in Season Two, we’ll see him begin to discover it.”
Have you enjoyed the portrayal of Jaskier by Joey Batey so far? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
