The Witcher universe is now officially in damage control mode. Ever since The Witcher Season 2 ended things haven’t been going Netflix’ way. Firstly, there was a huge backlash when fans came to know writers didn’t respect the source material. Then there was the whole Henry Cavill exit debacle which literally broke the faith and interest of most of the fans. What little bit hype remained was shattered by The Witcher: Blood Origin and although, Season 3 has managed to somewhat impress the critics and few fans but the negativity around it is still spreading like wildfire. Among this situation, we decided to analyze each season and every project Netflix produced surrounding the Witcher universe. So, here is a definitive ranking of The Netflix Witcher universe from worst to best.
5. The Witcher: Blood Origin
There is absolutely no question about the fact that Blood Origin is the worst of Netflix Witcher universe so far. Being a big fan of the Witcher Universe, I tried to ignore the shortcomings of Witcher Season 2. But The Witcher: Blood Origin proved that the franchise is heading towards a hole from which it’ll find it hard to claw its way out. After Henry Cavill’s exit from series and the mediocre performance of anything Witcher made by Netflix, they needed a win. Blood Origin instead turned out to be a huge loss which triggered fans worldwide into boycotting the Netflix Witcher Universe. The show is quite obviously a diversity propaganda with no heart, or soul and a useless attempt to bait people of all color, gender, sex, etc., into watching this excuse of a prequel. I am sorry Blood Origin but a huge thumbs down to you!
4. The Witcher Season 3
While The Witcher Season 3 is one hell of an improvement from Blood Origin, it is neither as accurate and intriguing as season 1, nor as action packed and high budget as season 2. Caught between the source material and creative diversions, it restricts itself from being what it could have been with a better vision and more investment. With this outing, creators did manage to stay somewhat true to the source material but ultimately failed to translate the script to screen, rendering it quite stale in parts. Overall Season 3 was a decent effort among all the destructive criticism by fans and easily 100x better than whatever Blood Origin was.
3. The Witcher Season 2
Ranking Season 2 ahead of season 3 might not bode well with fans who are sticklers for source material but there are a few really important reasons it ranks higher. The biggest reason is its huge budget and brilliant VFX work which elevated the show a lot. It was the best looking season among all and that is pretty much an undebatable fact. Moving on, season 2 had to adapt the most boring and uneventful book in the franchise called Blood of the Elves. If you rationally analyze, you’ll conclude that the entirety of that book barely provides 2 hours of on-screen content which was never going ot be enough for 8 episodes. Hence, the writers chose to offer us an original subplot, which honestly worked pretty well for non-book readers, critics, as well as fans willing to explore more ideas rather than expecting a page by page translation of books. That aside, season 2 also boast the highest Rotten Tomatoes score (95%) of all seasons. So, if you are willing to look beyond the source, you’ll actually enjoy season 2 a lot.
2. The Witcher Season 1
Witcher Season 1 is easily the best and most balanced season of the show for two reasons. First, that it explored a few creative ideas without at all hampering the source material and second, it featured some genuinely memorable and well executed action sequences. Though the first season was held back a little by budget, it still managed to be visually satisfying minus the Niflgaardian armour which fans were quick to rename as The Ballsack armour. The biggest flaw of this season, however, was its forced non-linear narrative which confused the non-book readers a lot. Even some critics had to rewatch the season to understand what was going on and it was really difficult to follow in general as well. Another minor flaw with the season was the excessive nudity which sometimes seemed quite forced and unsettling. But overall, there is no denying the fact that season 1 was the absolute best of live-action Witcher universe.
1. The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf
Nightmare of the Wolf was a production no one asked for but certainly the one fans deserved. Much like the CDPR’s Witcher trilogy, for the first time it felt like Netflix truly understood the Witcher universe and created something fresh out of it. This animated film got the atmosphere and setting completely right, and managed to bring forth a thrilling narrative as well as terrific action pieces within 83 minutes of its runtime. Of course, it wasn’t flawless and rather short, but it surely provided fans an exciting original tale of Vesemir based in the same universe they adore so much. It had every element to be considered a great film and the stylized animation along with blood and gore elevated its visual appeal a lot. Nightmare of the Wolf was also nominated for Best Animated Special Production at the 49th Annie Awards and boasts an approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. That said, it was certainly the best Witcher flick that came out of Netflix’ bag and we hope to see more such animation from the creators.
That concludes our list for now. The Witcher spin-off The Rats is expected to premiere in mid-2024 while a new animated film, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is also under production.
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