Netflix announces ‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’

Today, Netflix announced The Witcher: Blood Origin, a new six-part, live-action spinoff series from The Witcher that is set 1200 years prior and narrates the story of the first witcher and how the profession came to be. Details on the series are currently quite scarce, but we do know it’s being made by Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, the latter being the showrunner of The Witcher on Netflix.

Apart from Witchers, it seems like the series will explore Elves, monsters, and the general foundational lore of the series which hasn’t been explored very much by the mainline Netflix series, the games, or the books either are based off. Further, we know Andrzej Sapkowski, creator of the series, is involved, presumably as a creative consultant.

“1200 years before Geralt of Rivia, the worlds of monsters, men and elves merged into one, and the first Witcher came to be,” reads an official elevator pitch of the series. “Announcing The Witcher: Blood Origin, a 6 part live-action The Witcher spin-off series from Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.”

“This has been the toughest secret to keep,” added Hissrich about the announcement. “I’ve always wanted to dive deeper into the myth and lore of the Continent, and now fans will have a chance to explore it with Declan de Barra in a prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin. Elves, and enemies, and the end, oh my…”

 

It’s a bit unclear if it was always the plan to make this prequel series, or if this might somehow be related to the ongoing pandemic shutting down production of The Witcher season 2. There is no timeline for Blood Origin or The Witcher season 2 at this point, given the ongoing filming issues, so we don’t know which one will arrive first.