The Witcher spin-off scrapped by Netflix

Nothing quite says the ship is sinking like cancelled spin-offs. Poor Netflix, it just can’t catch a break with building on the success of The Witcher franchise.

First, Henry Cavill left, much to the dismay of The Witcher fandom. Then viewers poo-pooed Liam Hemsworth playing the iconic Geralt. And now, Netflix has scrapped a spin-off series after two months of filming.

It’s all going a bit wrong, we’re sad to say.

After learning that The Witcher will end on season five, we’re also finding out that the spin-off, titled The Rats, has reportedly been cancelled.

At least we still have The Witcher Sirens of the Deep to look forward to.

Intended to follow the antics of The Rats, who Ciri joined in season three, the series once intended to span between six to eight episodes, will now feature as flashbacks in season four of The Witcher instead.

According to Redanian Intelligence, after Netflix watched the footage already filmed, it decided not to go ahead with the prequel.

If you want further “confirmation”, Juliette Alexandra, who plays one of The Rats, has reportedly updated her resume to reflect this change of direction.

Alexandra’s resume read, “Juliette will return to S4 of The Witcher as one of The Rats, as well as in the spin off highlighting the backstory of these characters.” However, as per Redanian Intelligence, the latter part about the prequel has been removed.

In truth, though, The Rats being canned is the least of Netflix’s problems since fans got their first look at Hemsworth as Geralt. Oh, not in the full costume but rather a cast reading intended to show a peek behind the scenes.

Unfortunately, the response to that hasn’t been warm or inviting, but rather underwhelming and frosty.

Maybe season four of The Witcher will surprise us, or maybe it’ll be exactly what we’ve been dreading. Even if it does die a painful death, at least we have The Witcher 4 to look forward to.