‘The Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf’ Trailer: Meet Geralt’s Hot Mentor
Practically every major streamer is gearing up these days to capitalize on this current fantasy revival of sorts with series' of their own. HBO is doubling down onGame of Thronesspin-offsafter their crown jewel came to a hasty end in 2019. Amazon hasgrand plans forThe Lord of the Rings, pouring hundreds of millions worth of resources into the prequel series that will likely rival HBO’s production values. In the midst of all this,Netflixstruck gold with theirThe Witcheradaptation starringHenry Cavillas the monster-hunting Geralt. Never one to shrink from an IP challenge, the studio previously announced an animatedWitcherfilm set before the events of the live action series. Check out the latest trailer forThe Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolfbelow.
The Witcher Nightmare of the Wolf Trailer
This anime prequel film revolves around Vesemir, a Witcher who would eventually become a father figure to young Geralt after his mother sent him to the School of the Wolf. The major conflict appears to stem from the belief that Witchers are conspiring to stage attacks from all manner of fantastical creatures that (conveniently) only they can stop. A line later in the trailer hints at the precarious position of Witchers, as fending off these beasts has been the only thing stopping the people from going after the Witchers themselves. The very last glimpse of action in the trailer points to an escalation in hostilities.
Directed byKwang Il Han(The Boondocks) and written byThe Witcherseries writerBeau DeMayo,the film features actorKim Bodniaas the voice of Vesemir in the film. In a neat example of multimedia crossovers, Bodnia also reprises the role in live action during season 2 ofThe Witcher.
Nightmare of the Wolfappears to be following the rough outline of theWitchernovels written byAndrzej Sapkowski, though allowances will inevitably have to be made in order to bring things in line with the ongoing Netflix series. Similar to Marvel and Lucasfilm’s attempts with Disney+ shows, invested fans will be most likely to dive headfirst into these spin-offs and prequels while general audiences should be able to follow the main storyline just fine.
Another Shared Universe?
Don’t forget,Nightmare of the Wolfwon’t be Netflix’s only attempt to further expand the world ofThe Witcher. A six part live-action prequel series titledBlood Originhas also been announced, developed byWitcherwriterDeclan de BarraandWitchershowrunnerLauren Schmidt Hissrich, ensuring that there will be no shortage of fantasy material for fans to look forward to next.
While studios remain on the lookout for reliable IPs that will draw in eager audiences, Netflix seems to have settled on this fantasy series as a valuable resource to mine for every bit of storytelling potential it’s worth. Viewers sure seemed to love the coin-tossing adventures of a shirtless Henry Cavill, but will the same remain true for an anime series as well as other spin-offs? Speaking from personal experience with my own viewing habits, audiences can be notoriously fickle. From my vantage point, it’ll be interesting to see if these multi-million dollar gambits work out or not.
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolfreleases exclusively on Netflix onAugust 23, 2021.
