Just a week before The Witcher series premieres on Netflix, the streaming service released the final trailer for its adaptation of the bestselling novels and award-winning video game franchise.
The final trailer for The Witcher clocks in at nearly 2 minutes, and offers quite a bit of new footage featuring its trio of main characters, as well as some hints about the events that will bring them together. The first eight-episode season of The Witcher will premiere December 20 on Netflix, and the series has already been renewed for a second season.
Based on the dark fantasy series of the same name by novelist Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher casts Man of Steel star Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter struggling to find his place in a world populated by dangerous supernatural creatures and humans who can be just as evil — if not more so. The series will follow Geralt’s adventures as his fate becomes linked with a tremendously powerful sorceress and a young princess who harbors a dark secret.
Netflix also released a humorous clip of Henry Cavill himself reading from the original Witcher book while sitting in a leather chair and sipping whisky.
Previously, Netflix made Halloween extra special for everyone eagerly anticipating The Witcher series by releasing the show’s first full-length trailer (see below). The trailer debuted during Lucca Comics and Games, the annual comics and gaming convention in Lucca, Tuscany. It was met with widespread praise from fans of the Witcher books and the video game series, particularly for its short glimpses of the show’s fight choreography.
The trailer’s debut was teased a day earlier on the official Twitter account for the series, which posted a brief montage of scenes accompanied by a rhyming verse.
Oh little birds with tweets of sorrow
To you we bring some news
For when the rooster crows tomorrow
A trailer shall be viewed pic.twitter.com/uuSZlGrUj9— The Witcher (@witchernetflix) October 30, 2019
The Witcher series was developed for Netflix by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich (Daredevil, The Umbrella Academy). Joining Cavill in the primary cast is Freya Allan as the princess Ciri and Anya Chalotra as the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg, as well as Jodhi May as Queen Calanthe, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson as King Eist Tuirseach, and Adam Levy as Mousesack. Geralt’s trusty horse, Roach, will also feature prominently in the series.
Netflix released an early preview of the series in July during Comic-Con International in San Diego. That teaser video offered the first good look at Cavill in action as Geralt, as well as the monster-filled world of the popular series, which is set in a land known only as The Continent.
Although the books are expected to be the main source material for the Netflix series, it was the 2015 video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that first put The Witcher franchise in the global spotlight. The blockbuster game was developed and published by CD Projekt Red and proved to be a massive hit both in the U.S. and internationally, earning multiple Game of the Year awards and a long list of other honors.
