We're now just weeks away from The Witcher: Blood Origin arriving on Netflix, and we have news on another planned spin-off courtesy of Redanian Intelligence (via SFFGazette.com).
The Witcher is set to return to our screens next summer, marking Henry Cavill's final appearance as Geralt of Rivia before Liam Hemsworth takes over the role in season 4. The streaming service is clearly determined to expand the world of the Continent, though, with this latest live-action project set to revolve around The Rats.
The infamous group of young Nilfgaardian misfits are heavily featured in Ciri's storyline in the books as she joins their ranks for a time, though the character's small screen counterpart will first meet them in season 3's seventh and eighth episodes. The Rats are expected to feature heavily in season 4 of The Witcher, but their spin-off will arrive before that.
It's unclear whether Freya Allan's Ciri would be involved, and the site isn't sure whether it's a prequel, an "inbetweenquel," or both.
What's interesting is that, among fans of the books, The Rats are not particularly well-loved. While that makes this decision somewhat surprising, it's become apparent in recent months that the creative team working on the series don't have a huge amount of respect for the source material, anyway, hence why they might want to put their own spin on the group.
In terms of the cast, the site expects the same actors from The Witcher to reprise their roles in the spin-off, meaning it would feature Christelle Elwin as Mistle, Fabian McCallum as Kayleigh, Juliette Alexandra as Reef, and Aggy K. Adams as Iskra. It's unknown who will star as Asse and Giselher.
The news comes at a time when goodwill for The Witcher franchise is at an all-time low. That's due to Cavill's departure, of course, and a Change.org petition asking for his return - and for the show's writers to be fired - recently crossed 250,000 signatures. In fact, as we write this, it sits at over 266,000!
Cavill is said to have left the show due to its many deviations from the source material, and with a Superman return now on the horizon, we'd say he's done with Geralt no matter how many signatures that petition gains.