Remember when we worried Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher was going to be bad? Before a global pandemic hit and now we all need as big of a distraction as we can find? Good times. It’s hard to deny the series’ popularity, so it’s not surprising Netflix is looking to get as much out of the hype as it can. So even though season 2 has set to wrap up, they are announcing a new limited prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin.
The six-part live-action series will take place 1,200 years before the events of The Witcher, following the merging of the worlds of man, monster, and elves, as well as the very first Witcher. They are working on setting a production start date, but given the pandemic, it’s not clear when that will begin.
Showrunner and executive producer Declan de Barra tells Deadline he is excited to explore the backstory of the Witcher universe:
“As a lifelong fan of fantasy, I am beyond excited to tell the story The Witcher: Blood Origin. A question has been burning in my mind ever since I first read The Witcher books – What was the Elven world really like before the cataclysmic arrival of the humans? I’ve always been fascinated by the rise and fall of civilizations, how science, discovery, and culture flourish right before that fall. How vast swathes of knowledge are lost forever in such a short time, often compounded by colonization and a rewriting of history. Leaving only fragments of a civilization’s true story behind. The Witcher: Blood Origin will tell the tale of the Elven civilization before its fall, and most importantly reveal the forgotten history of the very first Witcher.”
Netflix also announced earlier in 2020 that we would be getting an animated spin-off movie, The Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf, about Geralt’s mentor and fellow Witcher Vesemir. And yes, there is a second season on the way, though no word when we might expect it to appear on the streaming service.