With Game of Thrones over, TV viewers all over the world are looking for the next big fantasy epic. While HBO has ordered pilot episodes for a possible Game of Thrones prequel, and Amazon is betting on a new take on the world of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Netflix is going with a series that, until recently, had a cult following in its home country of Poland and in other nearby Eastern European countries.
In the Witcher, Henry Cavill plays Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher, who are magically infused mercenaries hired to rid the world of Temeria of monsters. Witchers are generally seen by the populace as cursed and as horrific as monsters themselves. They rarely interact with anyone, mostly limiting themselves to strictly business matters.
Besides Henry Cavill, two other British actresses play leading roles. Opposite Cavill is Freya Allan, who plays Ciri, a young Witcher whose origin becomes a central point in the series. Anya Charlotra is Yennefer of Vengerberg, a powerful sorceress with a complicated history with Geralt of Rivia. Together, the three must navigate a continent full of brewing political tensions and ever-increasing supernatural threats.
The main cast is rounded off with some well-known actors and actresses from the United Kingdom. Jodhi May, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Adam Levy, MyAnna Buring, and Mimi Ndiweni all play supporting roles in the adaptation of the fantasy epic.
A glimpse of critics' opinions
While the show has yet to be released (Netflix plans to release it on Dec. 20), the company has already announced that the second season is already in the works. This may be because of the massive amounts of praise the series has gotten from critics. While the review embargo doesn't get lifted until the release date of the series itself, critics have tweeted out positive first impressions.
John Nguyen, from NerdReactor, said that "The Witcher action scenes are bloody." Freelance journalist Asher Elbein pointed out how the show is "well cast, smartly-structured, and nicely paced." YouTube critic and reviewer Warstu added more acclaim to Henry Cavill's casting and praised the fighting scenes as well.
The Witcher's other adaptations
This is not the first time the Polish series has been adapted to a different medium. Its first adaptation was a polish-made TV show and the movie entitled The Hexer. While the series was lauded as decent, the movie that preceded it was critically panned and disliked by its fans.
In 2007, CD Projekt, a Poland-based video game studio, created a video game adaptation, which was positively reviewed. It was not until 2011, when CD Projekt released the sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, shot the series to critical fame. The second game received numerous awards that year and sold over a million copies in a span of a year. The feat would be surpassed when the final game of the series, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, was released four years later in 2015. The third entry had over 1.5 million preorders and received numerous awards the year, and the following year it was released.
What else is on Netflix
For those looking for something else, Netflix has other releases this month. "The Confession Killer," which releases on Dec, 6, is a documentary about Henry Lee Lucas, a man who confessed to over 400 murders. However, not all of it may be true.
6 Underground, from Transformers director Michael Bay, features Ryan Reynolds as he and a group of vigilantes who have faked their deaths go after underworld criminals. It releases on Dec. 13.
"The Two Popes," also releasing on Dec. 20, stars Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins in this biographical drama about the two most recent popes in Catholic history: Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI. The show presents the two popes, who have distinctly different outlooks on the church, and the transition of power (and ideology) between the two men.
