“She’s a queer icon for book readers.”

The Witcher season 2 might have only just landed, but the boss is already thinking ahead to season 3.

Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich spoke about whether the show would feature any more queer characters.

“Absolutely. What I think is really great is season three, which is taken from the book Time of Contempt, which we’re in the process of writing,” she said. “So I will not spoil that much for you.

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“But I do think it’s a season that starts to delve more into relations, and just sort of talking about how relationships can be different.

“We have Philippa, who’s best known… I would say she’s a queer icon for book readers. We delve into her character. It’s not something we shy away from.”

She added: “I also think with Ciri, that’s something that I would say is hinted at in the books, but you never really get into what is her sexuality, and we start to delve into that more as well.

“All of that is coming down the horizon, and it is fun. I’m glad that you brought it up, because one of the things that I think that we try very hard to do with The Witcher is show that fantasy is for everyone, and represents everyone.

“I found, historically, that a lot of fantasy was written by men, for men.

“And so it was really interesting coming into this world as a woman, and saying, ‘OK, we have these amazing books that have these really strong female characters or queer characters.’

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“It’s like: how can we make sure that they’re showing up on screen, too, and more and more people can watch, and say, ‘Hey, this is for me as well’ in a world that has been, I think, historically kind of gatekept?'”

Freya Allan also spoke about her character Ciri, and whether season 3 will focus more on the queer aspect of her identity that hasn’t really been touched on yet.

“I won’t know until we get there how I’m going to navigate how Ciri is navigating her own sexuality,” she said.

“You see glimpses of her trying to navigate that in the season, in terms of the fact she’s like almost becoming quite boy-like.

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“And then I think she sort of then suddenly realises, ‘Actually, I want to embrace my femininity, and I want to embrace being a woman’ – and not find herself trying to be a replica of her older brothers.”

She added: “So I think that’s what’s she’s navigating in this season.

“But I don’t think she’s really discovered yet about her sort of sexuality, necessarily, I think. It’s definitely something that she’s going to discover in potentially season three, potentially season four. We’ll see.”

The Witcher seasons 1-2 are now streaming on Netflix.