Today, July 19, Netflix released the very first teaser trailer for their upcoming television series, The Witcher. The teaser comes just three weeks after Henry Cavill shared a series of photos of the show’s lead actors in costume, including Cavill’s portrayal of Geralt of Rivia. Based on the acclaimed book series by Andrzej Sapkowski, Netflix has taken up the mantle with their own version. The popularity of The Witcher series was due in part to developer CD Projekt Red’s video game adaptation from 2015, The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.
Netflix’s The Witcher Teaser Trailer
Clocking in at one minute and 45 seconds, the trailer is relatively long for a teaser. The teaser shows everything one expect from a Witcher story: monsters, political intrigue, action, and relationships. In the trailer, we get to see Geralt hunting monsters, Ciri meeting the dryads, and Yennefer transforming into a powerful sorceress. Unfortunately, however, there’s no Gwent.
Given that the Netflix adaptation is based mainly off of The Witcher short stories, it’s easy for fans of the books to identify some of the scenes in the short teaser. For example, there is a brief moment where Geralt is facing off against a band of bandits, which likely is the show’s recreation of the notorious scene that earns Geralt the nickname “Butcher of Blaviken”. In another clip, we see what appears to be the banquet scene featuring Pavetta’s outburst. The latter is mostly my own speculation, however, so take it with a grain of salt.
Fans have expressed their worries about such an adaptation, citing the quality of The Hexer, the older Polish TV adaptation of The Witcher, as the basis for their concern. Whether those concerns will be assuaged remains to be seen. However, this was just a teaser trailer, so there’s still plenty more to come. Thanks to this first glimpse, we now know more about what to expect from Netflix’s upcoming adaptation. The Witcher television series does not yet have an official release date.