The first half of The Witcher‘s final season, which features Henry Cavill in the role of Geralt of Rivia for the last time, has finally come to Netflix and, predictably, has jumped straight to the top of the streaming platform’s Top 10 charts. The question is, will this be the last season to pull off such a feat?
Season three of The Witcher is upon us, or at least the first half is for now. Already the epic fantasy that continues the story of Geralt of Rivia, as well as the recurring lead characters of Ciri of Cintra, Yennifer of Venderberg, and the bard Jaskier, has shot straight to the top of the global charts. It isn’t surprising at all, given that its previous seasons performed very well, and fans will be desperate to see the season which will serve as Cavill’s last in the role.
Part one of season three has been viewed 15,200,000 times, with a total of 73,000,000 hours watched. This is almost three times higher than the series in second place, season six of Black Mirror, which had 5,400,000 views between June 26 to July 2 (though granted, Black Mirror has been out for some time now, so its hold on the second place is still impressive). The Witcher‘s return even brought back the first season onto the charts, which currently holds tenth place with 2,200,000 views.
After a fair amount of controversy surrounding the show, particularly surrounding the showrunner and writer’s apparent dislike for the source material, the book series by Andrzej Sapkowski, which Cavill was hell-bent on staying faithful to, the actor chose to step back from the role he loved so much. In the same announcement, he said that the role of Geralt would be taken up by Liam Hemsworth instead, which was instantly met with disbelief and ridicule from fans.
The changes from the source material, plus Cavill’s departure, have earned the ire of fans who have left the show with one of its worst audience scores ever, at 44 percent. However, critics have managed to stay a little more positive, giving the season an 84 percent score, although this marks a drop from the last season, which had an impressive 95 percent rating.
With the ongoing season deviating further and further away from the source material and the loss of Cavill from the role, which was one of the major draws, this may be the last season that can pull off getting the show to the top of the charts. We suspect that many will simply not bother with the next season, or it could go the other way with people either watching out of curiosity or hate watching so they can complain about it and be proven right.
The Witcher went from having such promise to disappointing so many so quickly we almost have whiplash. Though it is too early to say that all is lost, it’s hard not to feel that way, especially when Netflix itself is still promoting the show based on Cavill’s current involvement, as if they know that is the only thing fans care about. However, season four is still a long way off, and we doubt that the feeling of betrayal among fans will have diminished much by then.
You can watch part one of season three of The Witcher now on Netflix, with part two set to land on July 27.