At Least ‘The Witcher’ Fans Agree On One Thing About The ‘Blood Origin’ Prequel

Back in 2019, The Witcher exceeded all expectations in its first outing, which led to massive streaming success and the swift greenlighting of a warmly received Nightmare of the Wolf animated movie and a prequel series, Blood Origin. However, it’s fair to say that the franchise lost some luster with Season 2, and news that Henry Cavill will depart after Season 3 (arriving in mid-2023) hasn’t helped matters. Liam Hemsworth will take over as Geralt of Rivia, and he’s got an uphill battle ahead of him because the fandom does love Henry.

The Christmas Day release of Blood Origin didn’t help matters. The show’s not as hard to follow as Season 1 of The Witcher, but I found it difficult to warm up to the story even though labels like “Dog Clan” and “Raven Clan” should excite me. As well, the show begins with an interlude from Joey Batey’s Jaskier, a.k.a., “The Bard,” who’s the second-most beloved character of the TV franchise. He’s not belting out a banger but visible in a hellscape while confronted by a different Jaskier, and then the story shows him in present time while Minnie Driver’s shapeshifting elf character asks him to “sing a story back to life.” Presumably, this is all meant to heal the ongoing riff between elves and the rest of the world, and then the story largely cuts to the new characters from an old world.

The show’s Twitter account posted part of this scene to celebrate the end of “Witchmas.”

This should have been a clever way for the franchise to tide us over with a connecting O.G. The Witcher thread, but the prequel isn’t aflame with accolades for the new show. As Rotten Tomatoes details, the aggregate critic score sits at 38% with the audience giving the show even less leeway with a 9% rotten rating. Viewers also seem to agree that the small bit of Jaskier was a highlight, especially how his “I’m not, not into it” declaration to his own clone may have formally canonized The Bard as queer (although I think we knew this already after “Burn Butcher Burn”).

The Witcher: Blood Origin is currently streaming on Netflix.