Even though the odds are stacked against it for a number of reasons, Netflix remains determined to continue expanding The Witcher into one of its marquee franchises, regardless of how many viewers keep letting the streaming service know it’s a terrible idea.
It looked promising for a while, to be fair, with Henry Cavill’s Geralt of Rivia the perfect anchor for a sprawling fantasy universe, but it wasn’t long until the wheels started coming off. The backlash was immense from the second the actor announced he was stepping away and being replaced by Liam Hemsworth, with fans demanding Netflix simply cancel the series instead of carrying on.
Overlord Lauren Hissrich’s announcement of a children and family-friendly offshoot didn’t go down too well, either, and that was before prequel spin-off Blood Origin ended up as one of the platform’s worst-reviewed episodic exclusives of all-time by virtue of 30 and 13 percent Rotten Tomatoes scores from critics and audiences.
And yet, the Continent must keep on growing, with What’s On Netflix revealing that The Witcher‘s second spin-off show – provisionally titled The Rats – has wrapped principal photography in South Africa. Presumably, it’ll arrive next year to plug the gap between Cavill’s exit and Hemsworth’s debut, but history is not on its side.
Obviously, for all we know it could mark a genuine return to form, but that’s not something the fandom has been conditioned to expect based on recent events.