Although the best of The Witcher is yet to come, after two mediocre seasons, one horrible spin-off series, and Cavill’s exit, fans have no expectations from the series. There has been tremendous backlash against The Netflix Witcher Universe but there are still some fans who have been eagerly waiting for more Witcher content. Most of the fans and critics agree that the best thing Witcher that Netflix has made yet is the anime movie – The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. Animation is undoubtedly Netflix’ strong suite, take Castlevania, Arcane and Love, Death + Robots for example. Therefore, owing to that fans are quite excited for the upcoming new anime spin-off film in The Witcher universe and here’s all you need to know about it.
Sirens of the Deep Trailer and Release Date
The second animated film in the Witcher universe was announced to be in works by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich in September 2021 during Netflix’s Tudum event. Later in May 2022, its title was revealed to be The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep by The Cosmic Circus. This was later confirmed by multiple sources and just a few months ago we received an update that Christina Wren has been casted as Essi Daven. As it happens, the official announcement as well as the main teaser for the film has been unveiled by Netflix at Geeked Week 2023. The biggest news for Witcher fans is that Dough Cockle is making a return as the voice of Geralt of Rivia. As you may know, Cockle is quite famous for his voice acting as Geralt from the CDPR Witcher Trilogy.
As for the release date of the series, the trailer has revealed it to be slated for late 2024. This is actually quite unexpected as Netflix usually reveals trailers for its productions barely a month or 2 before. Hence, most fans assumed that we might actually get to see Sirens of the Deep by Christmas 2023. However, that’s not the case and it is hard to explain why it is so. It seems like the film is pretty much ready including the voice work and animation. So, Netflix delaying it till late 2024 is rather frustrating and definitely not a good thing for the already in trouble franchise. Anyways, read on to learn more details.
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep Plot and Cast
Talking about the plot of Sirens of the Deep, involvement of Essi Davens suggests that it will be based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s short story A Little Sacrifice. It is the fourth story in Sword of Destiny and tells the tale of star-crossed trans-species lovers, a mermaid named Sh’eenaz and a human prince named Agloval. Parallel to that, it also explores the rivalry between the professional bards Dandelion/Jaskier and Essi Davens. It also explores a potential romance between Geralt and Essi. The setting of the story is in the Bremervoord is a small princedom ruled by Duke Agloval and a vassal state of Cidaris. So what does this have to do with Sirens?
Mythologically speaking, Sirens are creatures from Greek mythology who lure men close to them using their own bodies as decoys and then devour them. Sirens, as some of you might remember were featured heavily in Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt in the Skellige map. If you need reminding, these were the creatures which spawned near sea and made your boat rides rather messy. So, since they are found nearby coasts of the continent and the film would heavily feature a coastal area, we will see Geralt going toe to toe with some sirens and other sea monsters. Aside from that, there might be a symbolic meaning to this as well.
The official synopsis for the film reads, “Geralt of Rivia, a mutated monster hunter, is hired to investigate a series of attacks in a seaside village and finds himself drawn into a centuries-old conflict between humans and merpeople. He must count on friends — old and new — to solve the mystery before the hostilities between the two kingdoms escalate into all-out war.” It has directed by Kang Hei Chul and written by Mike Ostrowski and Rae Benjamin with a score by Joseph Trapanese. As for the cast of the series, following have been confirmed.
- Doug Cockle as Geralt of Rivia/Witcher
- Christina Wren as Essi Davens
- Anya Chalotra as Yennefer
- Joey Batey as Jaskier/Dandelion
- Undisclosed actress as Sh’eenaz
- Undisclosed actor as Agloval
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