It looks like Netflix are going all-in on building their “The Witcher” franchise, before production on the second season has even warmed up the streaming service has already announced an animated tie-in film from the animators behind “The Legend of Korra”, and today announced that it’s doubling down with a prequel series: “The Witcher: Blood Origin.” A six-part, live-action limited series, and a prequel to the hit Netflix series, “The Witcher”, “Blood Origin” will go to an elven world 1200 years before the main series, to tell the origin of the very first Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal “conjunction of the spheres,” when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one.
Declan de Barra, a writer (and singer!) on the original series, will act as Executive Producer and Showrunner and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich will act as Executive Producer. Author of the original series Andrzej Sapkowski will serve as creative consultant on the series. Jason Brown and Sean Daniel from Hivemind, and Tomek Baginski and Jarek Sawko from Platige Films will all serve as executive producers.
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“As a lifelong fan of fantasy, I am beyond excited to tell the story The Witcher: Blood Origin. 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,” said de Barra. “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.”
Schmidt Hissrich commented “I am so thrilled to collaborate with Declan and the Netflix team on The Witcher: Blood Origin. 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.”
“It is exciting that the world of Witcher – as planned in the very beginning – is expanding”, says Sapkowski himself,adding: “I hope it will bring more fans to the world of my books.”
“The Witcher: Blood Origin” will shoot in the UK. A premiere date is yet to be announced.