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 extremely disappointing and poor The Witcher: Blood Origin. Season 3 has managed to somewhat impress the critics and few fans but the negativity around it is still spreading like wildfire. But among all this mayhem, comes a ray of hope!
The Witcher Book 9 – Andrzej Sapkowski Shares Updates!
I think we can all agree that The Witcher saga is one of the best dark fantasy book series ever published and if you haven’t read these books, you are missing out on a lot. Andrzej Sapkowski’s world of Witcher consists of all and any fantasy trope that ever existed, and features some of the most complex characters and plot lines you’ll ever come across. Its such a huge original world that a lot can be extracted from it if adapted well, for example, over 300 hours of gameplay in Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. Its a world where you can immerse yourself and Sapkowski has created it with a lot of passion and detail.
So, fans of the world would be really happy to consume a good story based in the same universe, especially the one Sapkowski is cooking right now. He confirmed he’s writing a new book a couple of months ago and now he’s shared some more exciting updates about the book. So first of all, he confirmed that the book is actively under development and will be released as soon as next year. The book will be released in Poland at the end of 2024, and will become available internationally a few months later in early 2025.
The information came directly from Sapkowski himself at Vienna Comic Con where he stated, “I’m writing a new book right now, the new Witcher book. It will appear, I suppose, on the market next Winter.” While talking about it more, he also teased what it might be about, in his sarcastic way: “They made a series based on one short story. They forced me to continue. I’m not complaining. Thanks to this, I now have money for rent.” While this doesn’t directly reveal anything about the plot, we can assume that he’s writing a continuation of an existing short story.
Well, it will surely not be a sequel to the main Witcher saga as it ended perfectly and leaves little to no scope for any future with those particular characters. Sapkowski himself confirmed back in 2018 that, “The story is complete, the saga has been concluded, so if by any chance I write something in The Witcher universe, and I sure have such intention, it would probably be something like a prequel or a sidequel. Not a sequel.” So, as of now the plot is ambiguous but here are the two probabilities we are willing to bet on.
It feels like Sapkowski is done with the main characters of the universe and might wanna explore new possibilities of a Witcher story without them. So, it is highly likely that the new book might feature a different set of protagonist much like the upcoming games. It may feature the School of Sphynx or some other Witcher school and offer more insights into the past of the universe. Second possibility is that it maybe set in the future, which is a bit unlikely as Witchers were already on the verge of extinction in the main saga. What do you think it is going to be about?
The Witcher is currently available for streaming on Netflix till season 3. Season 4 will begin production in 2024 once the writers and SAG-AFTRA strike ends. A spin-off series The Rats is under post production and a spin-off anime movie called The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep in in the early phases. As for the games, Project Sirius and Project Polaris have both suffered a few delays.
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