The Witcher: Blood Origin

The Witcher: Blood Origin is a fantasy television miniseries created by Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and loosely adapted from the Witcher book series by Andrzej Sapkowski. It serves as a prequel to The Witcher. The series premiered on December 25, 2022 on Netflix, and consists of four episodes. It received largely negative reviews from critics, with criticism for its writing, story, characters, acting, and lack of fidelity to the source material, although the action sequences did receive some praise.
Set 1,200 years before the events of The Witcher television series, Blood Origin depicts the creation of the first Witcher, as well as the events leading to the "Conjunction of the Spheres". It also explores the ancient Elven civilization Xin'trea before its demise. Geralt of Rivia's bard ally Jaskier is saved from a war by the mysterious elf Seanchai where she has him write down the untold legend of seven warriors who went up against the forces of Xin'trea following its coup d'état.
It was announced in July 2020 that Netflix had green-lit a six-part miniseries prequel to its television series adaptation of the Andrzej Sapkowski novels. Declan de Barra was hired to serve as showrunner. In January 2021, Jodie Turner-Smith was cast to star in the series. Laurence O’Fuarain would join the cast in March, but by April, Turner-Smith had to exit due to scheduling conflicts. In July, Michelle Yeoh was added, with Sophia Brown taking over the role vacated by Turner-Smith.
Filming on the series began in August 2021 in the United Kingdom, with additional castings including Lenny Henry, Mirren Mack, Nathaniel Curtis and Dylan Moran announced. De Bara announced it had finished filming and went into post-production in November 2021.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 28% of 39 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "A shallow excavation of ancient lore from Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy series, Blood Origin shares ancestral DNA with The Witcher but little of what makes the mothership series memorable." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the series has received a score of 45 out of 100 based on 15 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
David Griffin reviewing it for IGN praised it for special effects, action scenes, and the "engaging band of misfits" as protagonists, but noted that the story villains were not very interesting. Zosha Millman reviewing the series for Polygon criticized it for being mundane, writing that the show "has no time for consideration of what makes the Witcher universe unique or meaningful at all, leaving it as just a muddled, reckless attempt to get more Witcher stuff out the door". Andrew Webster writing for The Verge likewise argued that without the titular Witcher (Geralt of Rivia) or another memorable lead, the series lacks something special to make it stand on its own. Therese Lacson writing for the Collider criticized the series for its "slapdash storylines" and "half-baked" villains, and noted that too often the show "slips into either complete camp, cringe, or melodrama". Darren Mooney reviewing the show for The Escapist called it a "bloody mess" and a "spectacular misfire", criticizing its characters as uninteresting, and "editorial tinkering" as clumsy and ineffective. In Slant Magazine, Niv M. Sultan wrote that "the series proves too hurried and scattered to penetrate much beyond the surface of its universe and characters." Vicky Jessop in the London Evening Standard said that "it's hard to feel invested in the fate of the characters". David Opie writing for Digital Spy likewise criticized the cast, noting that "Most of these characters, and therefore Blood Origin itself, remain frustratingly limited".