HBO’s Game of Thrones was a game-changing phenomenon that dominated the 2010s and single-handedly revived the fantasy genre on the small screen; what Lord of the Rings did for fantasy movies, Game of Thrones did for fantasy TV. It took HBO’s competition a while, but by the second half of the 2010s, most streamers had a major fantasy show in the works, ready to claim Thrones‘ place as it neared its infamous ending in 2019. However, out of all these shows, perhaps none was more successful or infamous as Netflix’s The Witcher.
Starring the reigning king of the nerds and Mr. Franchise himself, Henry Cavill, The Witcher was supposed to be Netflix’s main fantasy vehicle, and for a while, it was. Season 1 premiered to huge numbers and generated a ton of conversation; reviews were mixed, but the show seemed like it was everything Netflix wanted to be — until it wasn’t. Five years and three seasons later, it’s clear The Witcher not only failed to live up to its lofty expectations but might’ve actually hurt Netflix’s reputation ever so slightly. On its fifth anniversary, we look back at The Witcher‘s complicated history and discuss how Netflix might’ve put far too much pressure on an IP that was never going to explode in the way it wanted it to.
The first wish
In 2017, Netflix announced it would develop a series based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s long-running dark fantasy series The Witcher. Nearly every major trade that reported it made the connection with HBO’s pride and glory, not-so-subtly asking, “Has Netflix found its Game of Thrones?” From the start, The Witcher was meant to act as Netflix’s big fantasy IP; on paper, it made perfect sense. The series included multiple books and short stories. More importantly, it had a built-in fanbase from two distinct sources: the books, of course, and the highly successful and acclaimed video game adaptations courtesy of CD Projekt Red, whose 2015 effort The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt sold over 50 million copies as of 2023 and won Game of the Year at the 2015 Game Awards.
In September 2018, Henry Cavill was announced to star in the series. At that point, Cavill was at a great place career-wise following the critical and commercial success of Mission: Impossible – Fallout, arguably his best performance to date. Moreover, he was ostensibly still Superman, and his name carried a lot of weight in the geek community. Shortly after, newcomers Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan were cast in the key roles of Yennefer of Vengerberg and Cirilla of Cintra, and the show started filming for a later 2019 premiere.
The Witcher centers on three distinct storylines. Geralt of Rivia (Cavill) is the titular character, a monster hunter with enhanced abilities and magic who traverses The Continent, killing dangerous beasts and charging the reward. Yennefer of Vengerberg (Chalotra) is a powerful sorceress and the unofficial adviser of the Kingdom of Aedirn who sacrificed her fertility to become beautiful. Lastly, Cirilla (Allan) is the young princess of Cintra who escapes into the wilderness following an attack on her homeland and discovers incredible power within. The first season keeps their stories mostly separate, building until their eventual meeting to form the found family that’s so popular in both the books and the show.
Before season 1 had even premiered, Netflix renewed The Witcher for a second season. Cavill, who actively campaigned for the role of Geralt, stated he’d happily commit to the show’s seven-season arc “as long as (they) can keep telling great stories that honor Sapkowski’s work.” In hindsight, it very much seems that, with The Witcher, it was always about what was coming rather than what actually was at the moment. The showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, often spoke about the long-term plan, while Cavill kept stressing Geralt’s future journey. Yet, the present never seemed to be discussed — in fact, for this show, the present always seemed to already be the past.
A grain of truth
Reception for season 1 of The Witcher was mixed. The performances, particularly Cavill’s and Chalotra’s, were praised, as were the fight sequences, visual effects, and overall production values. However, the narrative and its needlessly complicated structure attracted considerable criticism, and for good reason. Season 1 of The Witcher is ambitious but messy and disorganized, biting off more than it could chew.
However, the novelty, plus Cavill’s presence and an annoyingly catchy earworm that took over the internet in late 2019, turned The Witcher into an outright sensation. It accumulated 76 million views in its first month on the streamer and pleased most hardcore fans while still attracting a new crowd with its premise, star power, and the promise of another fantasy epic about politics, magic, and sex.
The only issue was that The Witcher didn’t have much of those three. Yes, there was gratuitous nudity in season 1 and the occasional talk about The Continent’s larger political situation, but for the most part, The Witcher followed a monster-of-the-week formula while keeping its secrets incredibly vague and unclear. Still, there seemed to be enough here to support a successful show, and it was full steam ahead with season 2, which arrived two years later in December 2021. For starters, that’s too much time for a show that was probably binged in 24 hours; that issue, of course, isn’t exclusive to The Witcher, but it played a big role in its slow decline.
Season 2 was the point of no return for The Witcher. The series introduced new plots that were met with mixed-to-negative reception from the core audience, who lamented how much deviation from the source material was happening. Crucial choices, like Eskel’s death and the creation of a new villain, Voleth Meir, were particularly divisive and pretty much split the hardcore audience into two; whereas casual viewers couldn’t care less, the built-in fanbase that Netflix depended on did, and they did not like it.
What followed was a prolonged and quite ugly situation where both sides fired shots at each other. To make matters worse, in late 2022, after a year of constant attacks following season 2’s premiere, Beau DeMayo, a former writer for the show, claimed that no one on the writing team liked the source material and, in fact, openly mocked it.
Such claims, coupled with Henry Cavill’s exit from the show in October 2022, pretty much destroyed any goodwill The Witcher had left. Those who already hated it were further empowered, while those on the fence turned their backs on the show. And it’s a shame because season 3 might just be the best of The Witcher, featuring the most assured and put-together narrative and building toward an actual cohesive story with a clear goal. Alas, no one really cared; by the time season 3 came along, interest in The Witcher had diminished to the point of disappearing, not because of the controversies and not even because of Cavill’s exit, but rather because it was clear it was not Game of Thrones.
Yes, the hard truth is that, as a show, The Witcher is not as great as everyone wanted it to be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine series with good to great performances (Chalotra is really a gift and a revelation, and Cavill delivers some of his finest work, especially in season 3), strong visual effects, and an interesting enough storyline. However, it never strives for greatness; there’s very little ambition in its storytelling, which is more Star Trek than Game of Thrones. There are no layers to its world-building, and its narrative structure oscillates between decent and outright clumsy. Game of Thrones succeeded because it embraced fantasy but grounded it in gritty themes that made it addictive — politics, betrayal, shocking violence, sex, and everything in between.
The Witcher has none of that, largely because it doesn’t seem interested in doing it. Whereas Thrones was expansive, The Witcher seems limited and short-sighted. Whether it’s a good or bad adaptation of Sapkowski’s work is up for debate, but the absolute truth is that, as a show, The Witcher is just fine. And for a project with such high hopes behind it, “fine” just won’t do.
A time of contempt
The Witcher ended its third season with little fanfare. It’s unclear at what point in production Cavill negotiated his exit, but his goodbye from the show was only OK — bittersweet, for sure, but far from memorable. In his place, Liam Hemsworth will take over, which pretty much says everything about the show’s current state that it couldn’t secure anyone better than the third and least interesting lead from The Hunger Games. Season 4 will arrive at some point next year, with a fifth and final season already announced. Thus, The Witcher will limp its way to an ending in 2027 not as Netflix’s crowning fantasy jewel but as another of the streamer’s high-profile shows that ultimately amounted to nothing.
What is the show’s legacy? Well, Cavill will be fine. His reputation did take a bit of a hit, but that’s not just because of the show; a string of high-profile flops certainly didn’t help. Still, Cavill is largely in a good place, with the Warhammer 40K movie in the works, plus the Voltron and Highlander movies set to film next year and another Guy Ritchie action vehicle. More than any other actor, Cavill seems content with being a franchise player, so he’s where he wants to be.
Freya Allan has also made moves outside the series, with 2024 being something of a breakout year for her, thanks to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which might very well get a sequel soon. As for Chalotra, she recently made her debut as Circe in the DCU’s Creature Commandos. Since there will apparently be synergy between animated and live-action projects in the DCU, Chalotra’s Circe might make her live-action debut in a future movie.
Netflix, of course, will be fine, too. It will keep trying to launch a big fantasy IP, no matter how many missteps it has — whether it actually succeeds is a different matter. But what about The Witcher itself? Well, the IP will probably not return to live action for years following the end of the Netflix show, if ever. In the gaming world, it’s already preparing for a fourth game, The Witcher IV, which will follow Ciri as the protagonist. Whether the show’s divisive reception will impact its gaming counterpart remains to be seen. The truth is, the IP is now caught in the middle of the ongoing culture wars, and only time will tell if it makes it out intact.
Five years after its release, Netflix’s The Witcher stands as an example of a show that existed in the shadow of another and was unwittingly set up for disappointment. And while it isn’t an outright failure under any metric, it cannot be called a success, either. The Witcher exists in a weird limbo: It’s not great or bad, a winner or a loser. Instead, it might be the worst possible thing it can be in the cutthroat entertainment business: just OK. But “OKs” don’t become legends, and as it stands, witchers don’t become Targaryens. So toss a coin to your witcher — turns out he might actually need it.
The Witcher is available to stream on Netflix.
