Netflix's The Witcher: Everything We Know About The Upcoming Original Series
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Arriving to Netflix this December is The Witcher original series. This news was revealed back in 2017, and fans are extremely excited about the upcoming show. While The Witcher is quite known for its video game series, the new TV show will actually be based on the source material, a series of best-selling books.
Let's be honest. To this point, adaptations of video games to the big and small screen have been lackluster at best, and while The Witcher is based on the novel series, it's hard for fans of the game--including myself--to separate them. However, knowing that Netflix is behind the series and more often than not, their productions tend to be high-quality, it seems like Witcher is in the right hands.
While we're still months away from the show's release, we still know a few things about The Witcher, so here's everything we know. And we'll continue to update this as more information is released.
Release date
While the show was originally coming to Netflix in 2020, it's now been moved forward, coming out on December 20.
What's it about?
The Witcher is about a mutated monster hunter who "struggles to find his place in the world where people often prove more wicked than beasts," according to Netflix's official description. It's a fantasy/action series where the main character, Geralt, hunts and kills mythological creatures.
It's based on the novels
While The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt is undoubtedly one of the greatest games to date, the Netflix series is actually based on the original source material--a novel series. Written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher novels follow Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter with supernatural abilities.
Regardless of what is the primary source is, there are people that will think it pulls more from the games than the novels. "There's a little bit of a discourse [at Hivemind] whether The Witcher is technically a video game adaptation," explained Dinesh Shamdasani of Hivemind, one of the production companies behind the TV series while talking to GameSpot. "I think it will be perceived as one, despite the fact it comes from a literary source."
But the visuals are based more on the games
While this TV show's story and characters won't be based on the video game series, it's pretty obvious that the look of them may have come from the video games. "Netflix has gone all in on The Witcher. They have put a ton of resources towards it," explained Shamdasani. "There was a lot that was taken from the games, visually specifically."
And everyone looks pretty great
A few promotional photos were released in early July of Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, and they all look pretty great. Although, it was weird to see Geralt with only one sword. The show definitely pulls a lot of visual elements from the games.
The cast
The Witcher's cast is pretty solid, from what we've seen so far. Here is the main cast below.
- Henry Cavill as Geralt
- Freya Allan as Ciri
- Anya Chalotra as Yennefer
Production has finished
The first season of The Witcher has completely wrapped up, as Cavill revealed back in early June. Netflix is planning a pretty quick turnaround for post-production in order to get this show out by the fall.
The first teaser is out
Netflix released the first teaser for the upcoming show exceptionally early while hosting a panel at Comic-Con, and it is pretty awesome. It was pretty much everything you'd expect. Check out the trailer here and our breakdown here.
A new trailer is here
A mildly-NSFW trailer has arrived, and the two-minute long video gives better insight into what the series will be about.