A whole lot of us tossed a virtual coin to our Witchers when Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the famed fantasy book series from Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski debuted in December 2019 (holy crap that feels like years ago!). The Witcher was a gigantic smash hit for the streaming service as it introduced Henry Cavill in the fan-favourite role of Geralt of Rivia, a magically enhanced monster-hunter aka a witcher of few words but plenty of action. While it had a few issues, the eight-episode series adaptation from creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich was still damn fun sword and sorcery action though.
According to Netflix, the show was viewed by over 76 million people in its first month of release alone. That level of success prompted Netflix to not only greenlight a second season but quickly also announce a spinoff animated movie. Apparently, that’s still not enough Witcher-iness for Netflix though, as it was revealed that a live-action prequel series is now also in the works! Titled The Witcher: Blood Origin, this new show will be set far in the past and detail the origin of the very first monster-hunting Witcher.
Hissrich is returning to pen this spinoff but will be joined by Declan de Barra, an Irish musician who transitioned into screenwriting including stints on CW’s The Originals and Marvel’s Iron Fist, before writing one of the first season episodes of The Witcher, the very important “Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials” (He also wrote and performed four tracks on the official soundtrack). By going back this far into the franchise’s past, Hissrich and Declan are actually freeing themselves up a bit narratively as even Sapkowski’s books have been very vague about this particular origin story. When asked if Sapkowski is involved in developing this section of the mythology, Hissrich responded with a very unequivocal “Hell yes.”
As to when we can expect to see The Witcher: Blood Origin? Well, I’m guessing it’s still a while off as we’ve heard nothing further about casting and pre-production. Not to mention the fact that this will probably only drop after season two of The Witcher has been released, which won’t get here until probably late 2021. Just this Sunday past, reports emerged (via ComicBook.com) that thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down production after just five weeks of filming, season two will only resume shooting later next month and is expected to only conclude in early 2021. Some guesstimates based on how long post-production work took on season one would peg season two for a release no sooner than August 2021.
As for the animated spinoff movie, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, it will follow Vesemir, a father figure to Geralt, and details his own early days as a Witcher. Beau DeMayo, who also wrote on The Witcher season one, will write the movie, with the animation being handled by Studio Mir, the acclaimed Korean production house that previously gave us the brilliant Legend of Korra. There’s no release date set for it yet.
Last Updated: July 28, 2020
cloudzn
July 28, 2020 at 08:27
More witcher content is always a good thing, looking forward to it
Original Heretic
July 28, 2020 at 08:48
Oh just do it properly, please.
I sincerely hope they don’t fall into the “nothing has really changed in 1200 years trap” that most fantasy worlds seem to fall into.
Societies evolve with time, as do the technologies that they use. So if anything, this setting should be somewhat more primitive than what we’ve seen so far.
Kervyn Cloete
July 28, 2020 at 10:01
This is actually a very big pet peeve of mine about the genre. It’s actually one of the big reasons why I loved Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series so much, as the technology continuously evolves.
Kervyn Cloete
July 28, 2020 at 10:01
This is actually a very big pet peeve of mine about the genre. It’s actually one of the big reasons why I loved Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series so much, as the technology continuously evolves.
Original Heretic
July 28, 2020 at 10:35
Sanderson did a great job with that.
I’ve only read the first follow up to the original series, and was pleasantly surprised by it.
If you’re going to stunt development, make sure there’s a very good reason for it. Which is exactly what Sanderson did in that original series. It’s simply sublime how much thought he put into it.
Lu
July 28, 2020 at 10:22
Or in Tolkien’s case, devolve, which was also pretty cool.
But yeah you have a major point there.
Original Heretic
July 28, 2020 at 10:42
Yes, also makes sense. We had our “Dark Ages”, where things went a bit backwards for the most part (there were advances in some areas).
It’s always about an agenda. Suppression of knowledge can have far-reaching consequences.
Lu
July 28, 2020 at 12:36
Oh yeah definitely.
The battletech lore has this where a starfaring civilisation fights itself back to the stone age (not really but they do regress heavily).
Not going to elaborate (due to it being a borderline political/religious topic), but I never understood how technology/knowledge could be lost aaaand then I read the news.
Original Heretic
July 28, 2020 at 13:14
The scary thing is, it’s so easy to lose knowledge.
All you need to do is silence a few people, them suddenly the others don’t really WANT to talk/share anymore.
Destroy a few books, delete some information (if digital) and you’ll be left with a bunch of people who sort of know something about that thing, but not enough to teach others. Unless it’s something that’s used on a regular basis, it becomes nothing more than a story for subsequent generations, one that can quickly fade to legend in a society that suppresses knowledge.
I mean, how much was lost when the Great Library at Alexandria was burned down?
How much of what Da Vinci discovered was scoffed at until it was proven (years, decades, CENTURIES even) later.
Lu
July 28, 2020 at 13:36
Yeah we probably lost stuff in the burning of the library of Alexandria that we’ll never learn again. And the people that tried to silence Galileo (but fortunately failed) are resurrected in the Flat Earth Society
The internet does help I suppose, but then there are those trying to censor that too
Lu
July 28, 2020 at 13:36
Yeah we probably lost stuff in the burning of the library of Alexandria that we’ll never learn again. And the people that tried to silence Galileo (but fortunately failed) are resurrected in the Flat Earth Society
The internet does help I suppose, but then there are those trying to censor that too
Original Heretic
July 28, 2020 at 13:58
I wanted to say more above, but suddenly got hit by a business call…
Yeah man, knowledge is something that we, as a civilization, absolutely take for granted.
Yes, the internet is there, but what if a massive solar flare delivers an EM wave that wipes out all electronics? How much of it will survive?
There are so many things that were accepted as fact in years gone by, that now suddenly people don’t want to believe them. “Question everything” is a great philosophy and all, but don’t disbelieve an answer just because it contradicts a belief you may have held dear for your whole life.
We have this romantic notion that “the truth will come out”, but how often are truthspeakers initially considered to be crackpots?
You used the example of Galileo above. Yes, excellent example of that. His “revolutionary discovery”, which in actual fact was merely a REdiscovery, landed him in a jail for the remainder of his life.
The examples go on and on. It seems to be a human reaction to reject knowledge, unless it’s hammered into us.
And who’s to say that the stuff being hammered into us is even true?
Lu
July 28, 2020 at 14:26
I listen to a podcast (You Are Not So Smart) where the guy deals with human self delusion. Opened my eyes to how I myself deal with people and opinions.
The one on conspiracy theories is on the nose. Questioning everything and Skepticism are not the same thing.
It’s the human condition to reject that which is not in our little pre-learned bubble. There are studies where two points on the same topic are explained, and the people tested would mostly praise the one confirming their view, while bashing the other.
And as for losing the electronics. Yes it’s a scary notion. Especially looking at the state of things today. How many know what plants are safe to eat and which aren’t. How to make fire without matches/lighters. Skills everybody had but aren’t needed now.
Prime example:
Our parents didn’t use GPS and managed to get wherever they needed to go without getting lost. How many of this generations 20-30 year olds can say the same?
As for what we’ve been taught yeah that’s a good point. How many sets of encyclopedias we had as kids are full of now false information. Never mind the “this person is bad because their ancestors did this to our ancestors” which pretty much is still happening in every household.
Matthew Holliday
July 28, 2020 at 15:51
If you dont push the envelope and progress the future generations, once we lose the people who know how things work, we’ll forget how to make things work.
Or more relevant to today, stick enough things behind a pay wall, or corporate structures and patents and stuff and only those with access will be able to progress.
Matthew Holliday
July 28, 2020 at 15:36
I was pretty chilled until I read “screenwriting for The Originals and Iron Fist”
Never seen The Originals, but it doesnt look like my cup of tea, and Iron Fist was so poorly cast, acted and choreographed, I didnt get to pay attention to the actual writing.
But now Im also like “please do it properly”
Kervyn Cloete
July 28, 2020 at 17:07
Well the episode of The Witcher S1 that he wrote was pretty damn solid. And Iron Fist was screwed up from the top down with showrunner Scott Buck, who also ruined Inhumans and the last few seasons of Dexter.
Iskape
July 28, 2020 at 10:35
Should be interesting. There are tons of stories to be told about the Witcher’s world!