Netflix’s 4-Hour High Fantasy Series Started The Downfall Of A Franchise

Netflix’s four-hour miniseries was supposed to reinvigorate a high fantasy franchise; instead, it signaled its collapse. For as much as Netflix dabbles in the fantasy genre, it often fumbles its stories. Whether because of nosediving quality or a refusal to renew shows that are succeeding, the streamer is littered with half-finished fantasies and finished fantasies that you won’t complete.

They’ve tried their hand at big, Game of Thrones-style fantasy epics and have failed miserably; look no further than the catastrophic loss potential of 2014’s Marco Polo, which some put as high as $200 million. Netflix did seem to have a winner on its hands five years later, when the first season of The Witcher premiered.

Adapted from the book series of the same name, which was also adapted into a successful video game franchise, The Witcher didn’t necessarily start off with a bang, but it was solid enough to keep fans entertained and warrant a second season. Season 2 was a major improvement, but then things changed, and it all began with The Witcher: Blood Origin.

The Witcher: Blood Origin is a four-episode prequel miniseries set about 1200 years before the events of The Witcher TV show. A loose adaptation of author Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, Blood Origin expands upon The Witcher setting, though it isn’t specifically based on any book, and much of the lore in the show was created by the showrunners.

The series follows the creation of the first Witcher, Fjall (Laurence O’Fuarain), an elf who forgoes his oath to protect a king in order to seek vengeance on an Empress who betrayed his clan. At only four episodes, Blood Origin is not a major entry in the canon, but its issues were a signal of larger cracks in The Witcher franchise.

Blood Origin Was The Start Of The Witcher’s Franchise Downfall

With a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Witcher: Blood Origin is by far the lowest-reviewed entry in The Witcher franchise. The series came out in December 2022, a year after The Witcher season 2 reassured audiences that the Witcher story was in good hands with Netflix.

After Blood Origin, things started to trend downhill. The months leading up to it were not free of controversy either. In October 2022, it was announced that Liam Hemsworth would be replacing Henry Cavill in The Witcher season 4. Season 3 was already filmed at the time of the announcement.

Season 3 premiered in 2023, and season 4 premiered in 2025, and both seasons took steps down from the peak of The Witcher season 2. The Witcher seasons 3 and 4 saw massive changes to the source material, something that Blood Origins was criticized for. It’s these changes and the stretching out of storylines that fans don’t have any connection to, that have really led to The Witcher faltering as a Netflix franchise.

Blood Origin Had The Potential To Be Great

Among the many frustrating things with The Witcher: Blood Origin is the understanding that it could have been so much better. A prequel limited series to The Witcher is not a bad idea. Even making changes to the lore is not that big of a problem, but Blood Origin doesn’t even fully explore the changes it makes.

The series chooses the most uninteresting pieces of The Witcher lore to dig deeper into. What results is a mess of half-baked ideas that only gesture at the lore of the series, and doesn’t even replace it with compelling mysteries of its own. The Witcher: Blood Origin doesn’t seem to care about its legacy, which can be said for the rest of the Netflix franchise at this point.

Release Date

2022 – 2022-00-00

Showrunner

Lauren Schmidt Hissrich

Directors

Lauren Schmidt Hissrich

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