The Witcher: Blood Origin Creator Confirms Major Change

The Witcher: Blood Origin is officially set to release on December 25th, Netflix finally announced during the Tudum fan event this past weekend. The streaming service also announced that Minnie Driver had officially been added to the cast. What it did not really announce in the same way but instead quietly confirmed alongside an interview with creator showrunner Declan de Barra is that the total number of episodes has been trimmed down from six to four.

While initially announced as a six-part, live-action limited series, it was reported earlier this year that The Witcher: Blood Origin had undergone significant reshoots and editing that ultimately left it with four episodes instead. As part of an interview by Netflix itself, de Barra confirmed the report and explained why the show ultimately went in that direction.

“This felt like a two-part movie. You never want to be watching a movie going, ‘I love this movie.’ And then you start to look at your watch going, ‘Oh, please end soon,’  I never wanted there to be any moment where we’re just stringing the audience along to have an episode,” he said in the interview. “It always had to feel logical and right from a natural storytelling point of view and we of course had the advantage of not being a network show with no set rules for times or episode count. So, when we were in the edit room, that [four-episode structure] is what happened organically, the shaping into four episodes from all the footage we shot. Optimum story flow. I wanted it to be a  punch in the face, so that you can’t take your eyes off it.”

As noted above, The Witcher: Blood Origin is set to release on Netflix on December 25th. Declan de Barra is the showrunner and executive producer for The Witcher: Blood Origin while The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich is an executive producer. The Witcher: Blood Origin cast includes Sophia Brown as Éile, Michelle Yeoh as Scían, Laurence O’Fuarain as Fjall, Minnie Driver as Seanchaí, and more. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the upcoming limited prequel series right here.

What do you make of the confirmation that there will only be four episodes of the limited prequel series? Are you looking forward to checking out The Witcher: Blood Origin when it releases on December 25th? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things television and gaming!