Earlier this month, Netflix revealed the release date for the first season of The Witcher, as Geralt of Rivia will come to the streaming service on December 20. Of course, the announcement was paired with a new trailer, which you can take a look at below.
As you can see from the trailer, Netflix has gone all-in on The Witcher, as they’re hoping to create their version of Game of Thrones. Another indicator that the streaming service is fully behind their upcoming series is that it has already been renewed for a second season one month before the first season is scheduled to debut.
During a recent interview with GamesRadar, showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich said that she already has seven seasons mapped out for the show.
“Second season? I’ve done it for seven seasons,” said The Witcher’s showrunner when asked about her future plans for the upcoming Netflix series. “Right now it’s just about, ‘How do you set up stories that really capture audiences for years at a time?’ The worst thing we could do is put all of our energies just into season one, and not be thinking about where these characters can grow to.”
It’s also worth noting that, while the show will probably draw from the video games as well, it’ll mainly be based on the book series. Of course, there are a ton of similarities between the two, but, like with the Game of Thrones, The Witcher will likely change a few things for the TV show to help make it less predictable for those who have read through the book series.
Even though developer CD Projekt Red is fully invested in their newest IP — Cyberpunk 2077, which is currently scheduled to release on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC next spring — they’ll likely move towards continuing The Witcher series after Cyberpunk’s release, especially if the Netflix show ends up being a huge success.
Regardless, the third installment of The Witcher’s video game franchise — subtitled Wild Hunt — was a big hit, so CD Projekt Red will move back to the franchise at some point. Whether or not it’ll feature Geralt of Rivia as the game’s main protagonist remains to be seen, but it’d be hard to imagine a Witcher game without the beloved Geralt as the main character.
For now, though, fans of the video games and the books can look forward to the Netflix series’ launch date of December 20.
