The Henry Cavill-led fantasy series The Witcher has been a huge success for Netflix. Showrunner Lauren Hissrich is currently deep in production on the second season, but last year Netflix also announced two prequel projects were in the works to expanded The Witcher franchise.
The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted the first prequel, the animated movie The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf from South Korean animation studio Studio Mir (who’ve given us impressively-animated and told shows like The Legend of Korra and Voltron: Legendary Defender), is coming later this year as per Netflix’s “worth the wait” section of upcoming titles. The movie will tell a new tale, written by Hissrich and Beau DeMayo, in The Witcher universe and revolve around Geralt’s mentor in the School of the Wolf, Vesemir.
The second prequel, a live-action miniseries called The Witcher: Blood Origin with Declan De Barra (The Originals) onboard as showrunner, will take us back much, much further from the events we witness in season one of The Witcher – 1,200 years back to be more precise. The Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski is also involved as a creative consultant.
As per Variety, “Blood Origin” will tell a story lost to time — the creation of the very first Witcher and the events that lead to the pivotal “conjunction of the spheres,” when the worlds of monsters, men and elves merged to become one.
The publication has also just announced the first major casting to join the production, British actress Jodie Turner-Smith. She’s appeared in TV series such as The Last Ship, Jett, and Nightflyers in recent years, and gave an excellent performance in 2019’s crime drama Queen & Slim.
Turner-Smith will play a warrior named Éile, who was blessed with the voice of a goddess and leaves her clan and role as the queen’s guardian to follow her heart and embark on a journey as a nomadic musician. A grand reckoning on the continent forces her to return to the way of the blade in her quest for vengeance and redemption.
I’ve never really been one for prequels because taking existing characters and telling us what happened to them ten years ago isn’t as interesting as what’s happening now – especially since you know they’re going to turn out just fine thanks to the original series existing. This prequel series feels different to me though because it’s going so far back in the timeline and covering events that haven’t been explored in much depth, even in the novels. The world we see in The Witcher season one is a fascinating one, and I’m keen to see more of it.
Last Updated: January 26, 2021
Grid10ck
January 26, 2021 at 06:29
Netflix is doing nothing but disappoint fans with the Netflix shows, this show is supposed to happen pre conjunction of spheres… This means there are no humans in the witcher world(continent) we know.
“will tell a story lost to time — the creation of the very first Witcher and the events that lead to the pivotal “conjunction of the spheres,””
Witchers were created because of the conjunction not before it, this makes it sound like they’re going to fabricate a new reason for the witchers to be created. Netflix….. you just need to stop.
Alien Emperor Trevor
January 26, 2021 at 09:09
Could be they just worded it poorly. Swap the sentence around a bit and it’s much closer to what you just said.
“The events that lead to the pivotal “conjunction of the spheres,” when the worlds of monsters, men and elves merged to become one, and the creation of the very first Witcher”
Grid10ck
January 26, 2021 at 10:06
I did think of that but with the way Netflix is running things, what I said is also plausible.