Hey, Witchers! How about a series without your favourite silver-haired witcher, Geralt of Rivia? But with the backstory of how his existence became almost necessary? Not even then?
Well, you’re still going to get it. Because Netflix has decided so. Despite the first season of The Witcher having wrapped up only recently, the streaming giant announced on Monday that they have already greenlit a new live-action project from the universe.
Titled The Witcher: Blood Origin, this six-part prequel series will be a limited edition coming from original showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and Declan de Barra. Meanwhile, the Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski will be on board as a producer and creative consultant.
Check out the announcement –
When a civilization falls
Blood Origin will take place 1,200 years before the events of The Witcher, when the Conjunction of the Spheres took place, the cataclysmic event when the world came into contact with other mythical creatures of netherworlds. So you’ve got monsters like vampires and werewolves along with folkloric stuff like faeries, grumpkins, and also creatures from the Slavic mythos.
The story is mostly about the Elven world before the pesky humans showed up and started ruining everything. According to the show’s description, it seems like the timeline will be altered where we will actually see the Conjunction of the Spheres happen despite the books describing it as happening 1,500 years before Geralt’s story. Math will be deliberately fuzzed with, be prepared.
However, their intentions are noble. As per de Barra, the scope of the show includes:
“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.”
He goes on to add that:
“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.”
Limited series
The new series is being pitched as a “limited series,” meaning it will end after just six episodes. However, we know anything that gets popular enough is expandable in scope, as we saw with HBO’s “limited series” Big Little Lies, among others.
After all, The Witcher has been one of the streamer’s most-watched series in all its history. We can expect the new limited edition to turn into a full-fledged series. That said there is no official confirmation just yet.
When is out? No one knows
It’s also a bit unclear if it was always the plan to make this prequel series. There is the possibility if this might somehow be related to the ongoing pandemic shutting down production of The Witcher’s next season.
There is no timeline for Blood Origin or The Witcher season 2 at this point. Also, given the ongoing filming issues, we don’t even know which one will arrive first.
The Witcher backstory
The Witcher is based on a series of books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Geralt’s print adventures are very popular in Poland — there have been comics, a TV show, movie, and tabletop role-playing game all based on Sapkowski’s work.
The most successful and famous adaptation, however, is The Witcher trilogy of video games by the studio CD Projekt Red.
The first season of the show, which debuted last year, was the most popular in Netflix’s history. It is no surprise then that Blood Origin also isn’t the first announced spinoff. In January, Netflix announced The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, an anime take on the franchise.
Geralt’s absence
A pretty consistent thing in all adaptations of The Witcher stories is most definitely Geralt’s characterization. However, the new standalone spin-off will be more concerned with how and why were the witchers needed in the world and then came to be.
As De Barra told in an interview recently about the scope of Blood Origin: “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.”
So all those disappointed by Geralt’s absence, rest assured to return to the original series with some deep insights into the history of witchers. Good enough bargain?
Right, so all this talking about Witcher and I want to go have a rewatch. You guys can comment below and let us know how you like the idea of Blood Origin prequel.
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