The Witcher season 3 is still a while away, but Netflix is bridging the exhausting wait with a prequel show that takes place thousands of years before Geralt of Rivia was even born.
Blood Origin chronicles the history of the Continent in its early days, when the Conjunction of Spheres released all sorts of monsters into the world and necessitated the existence of enhanced human warrior machines to fight them. These would go on to be known as the Witchers, and the four-episode limited series is going to depict that in earnest.
The prequel show will not only depict the creation of the first Witcher, but go into the downfall of the Elven civilization and how mankind drove them away from their magnificent cities.
The Witcher: Blood Origin will debut on Dec. 25 with an all-new cast of characters that includes Sophia Brown, Michelle Yeoh, Lenny Henry, Mirren Mack, Dylan Moran, and Laurence O’Fuarain.
Meanwhile, the Witcher fandom is still coming to terms with the explosively disconcerting news of Henry Cavill’s departure after season 3, to be replaced by Liam Hemsworth as the titular White Wolf. With the fandom being on edge as they are, there’s no telling how they’ll receive this new prequel show, which is yet another attempt by Lauren S. Hissrich and the team at Netflix to expand The Witcher franchise through spinoffs and other side media.
The first of these was Nightmare of the Wolf, an animated film centering around Vesemir’s youth. Blood Origin will be the second spinoff, and it’ll no doubt be followed by a string of other projects for years to come.
As mentioned earlier, you can expect all four episodes of The Witcher: Blood Origin to drop on Netflix come Dec. 25.