Toss a coin to your…past? The streaming service announced today that it’s going to release The Witcher: Blood Origin, a 6-episode miniseries spinoff to its hit fantasy series The Witcher.
Based on the popular book series by Andrzej Sapkowski, the main series follows Geralt of Rivia (played by Henry Cavill), a monster hunter known as a “witcher.” The first, eight-episode season was based on two of the books, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. Last November, Netflix announced that it had renewed the series for a second season, which is set to debut in 2021, and will depart a bit more from the books.
The show was immensely popular upon its release, and Netflix is clearly taking advantage of the absence of HBO’s Game of Thrones for the next couple of years to stake out its claim in the fantasy TV world. In January, Netflix revealed that it’s developing a standalone anime movie, and now, it’s adding to that franchise with a prequel.
1200 years before Geralt of Rivia, the worlds of monsters, men and elves merged into one, and the first Witcher came to be.
Announcing The Witcher: Blood Origin, a 6 part live-action The Witcher spin-off series from Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.
— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) July 27, 2020
Netflix says that The Witcher: Blood Origin will be set 1200 years before the events of the main series, and that it’ll explore how “the worlds of monsters, men and elves merged into one, and [how] the first Witcher came to be.”
The story doesn’t appear to be based on any of the works that Sapkowski has published: all of the novels to date, Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow, Season of Storms, and The Lady of the Lake are sequels to the two initial short story collections.
Netflix didn’t say when the series would be released, or who’ll be cast in it. The next season is set to begin production next month.
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