Every streaming service has that blockbuster high-fantasy property that it’s milking into a dried-out husk. NOW has the world of Westeros, while Amazon has Middle-Earth. Netflix, meanwhile, has been piling money into adaptations of Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series of novels (better known in their video-game form). And so, naturally, after a year that has seen dragons and magic rings dominating television, the lore of The Witcher returns this Christmas with a prequel, set a millennium before Henry Cavill’s Geralt (soon to be Liam Hemsworth’s Geralt) walked these lands. This is The Witcher: Blood Origin.
The action is introduced using a clumsy conceit involving Jaskier (Joey Batey), a familiar face from the first two seasons of the show, and Minnie Driver’s mysterious magic elf. “I slip between worlds and times collecting forgotten stories,” she tells him. “I bring them back to life when the world needs them.” Really, this is just a thin excuse to orient viewers and remind them of the world they, apparently, know and love. The real story here is about the first Witcher, and the ragtag team of warriors who brought them to the Continent.
