Netflix just announced the production of a six episode limited series prequel to The Witcher called The Witcher: Blood Origin. This means that including the coming animated feature The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, and Season 2 of The Witcher, fans of the franchise will have a lot to look forward to.
According to Netflix the prequel is set in an Elven world 1200 years before the events of The Witcher and tells the story of the very first Witcher and the “conjunction of the spheres”: the event that merged the worlds of elves, men and monsters into one.
Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, showrunner for The Witcher, will serve as executive producer on the new show, and Andrzej Sapkowski, writer of the original books, will be creative consultant. Declan de Barra, writer of episode 4 of The Witcher “Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials” as well as several episodes of The Originals among many other projects, will be helming The Witcher: Blood Origin as showrunner and executive producer.
In a statement provided by Netflix to the media, de Barra said:
“A question has been burning in my mind ever since I first read the Witcher books: What was the Elven world really like before the cataclysmic arrival of the humans? 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. ‘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.”
In the same statement Schmidt Hissrich added that she is “thrilled to collaborate with Declan and the Netflix team on The Witcher: Blood Origin” and remarks that “it’s an exciting challenge to explore and expand the Witcher universe created by Andrzej Sapkowski, and we can’t wait to introduce fans to new characters and an original story that will enrich our magical, mythical world even more.”
The Witcher: Blood Origin is in pre-production, and has no set release date yet. Season 2 of The Witcher is slated to resume production in just a few weeks, after having to pause when the pandemic hit in March, and is expected to arrive on Netflix sometime in 2021.