The Witcher will end with season 5, despite Netflix’s original plan for seven installments. So what went wrong, and is there time to fix it?
Netflix has officially renewed The Witcher for two more seasons, but the original plan for seven installments has been cut short. The fantasy series, based on the books by Andrzej Sapkowski, has had a rocky run through its existing three seasons. The first eight episodes, which hit the streaming platform in 2019, performed well enough, but things took a rough turn when season 2 brought too many divisive changes from the source material. Then, the announcement that star Henry Cavill would be leaving his The Witcher role only put a greater damper on things.
Despite these problems, Netflix has determined that the show must go on, and the streaming service announced in April 2024 (via Screen Rant) that production was beginning for The Witcher season 4, this time with Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth playing Geralt. Along with this news came the reveal that the fantasy series was also renewed for season 5, though this would be the final installment of The Witcher. This is a surprise since showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich had initially shared a seven-season plan with the public—so what changed?
The Witcher Season 3’s Viewership Drop Explained
The Witcher Season 3’s Viewship Dropped 15% From S2, & 60% From Ep 1 To Ep 5
According to Netflix’s viewership data, The Witcher season 1 did reasonably well, with about 83 million views in the first 90 days after its release. This was when hype regarding the fantasy series was at its highest. Of course, there was some criticism about divergences from canon, but overall, it looked as if The Witcher would continue to leave a significant mark on popular culture. Unfortunately, season 2 saw this number drop (67 million views) while the criticisms from audiences climbed. Still, if this was bad, The Witcher season 3’s viewership was abysmal.
The viewership for The Witcher season 3 was 15% lower than that of season 2 in the first eight weeks after release, which is never a great sign for a series a few installments in. However, it was the drop in viewership between the first handful of episodes that was the most alarming. By The Witcher season 3, episode 5, 60% of those who had started episode 1 had stopped watching. Ultimately, this means that the vast majority of those who started out watching this third installment of season 3 didn’t even bother finishing. Naturally, this makes the likelihood that viewers would hold out to season 7 rather small.
The Witcher: Blood Origin Was A Huge Disappointment
The Witcher’s First Spinoff Was A Major Flop
Following the success of The Witcher season 1, Netflix jumped on the opportunity to expand the franchise, and The Witcher: Blood Origin was conceived. The spinoff series hit the streaming service at the end of 2022, about a year after the disappointment of The Witcher season 2 and the announcement that Cavill would be leaving the series. This put Blood Origin at a marked disadvantage, but it was always possible that the new series could revitalize the franchise, proving definitively that there was more to The Witcher than Cavill’s performance.
Unfortuantely, The Witcher: Blood Origin failed to pull this off. The series’ first season only had four episodes, and there wasn’t enough time to build characters or establish what The Continent was like thousands of years before Geralt’s story. What’s more, Blood Origin did little to repair the fundamental problem with the original series since it is based only loosely on Sapkowski’s books. This put a damper on the overall perspective on The Witcher, and surely made Netflix even more uncomfortable with investing more money into additional seasons of the flagship series.
Henry Cavill’s Exit Hurt Netflix’s The Witcher Plans
Recasting Geralt After The Witcher Season 3 Is A Difficult Thing To Come Back From
The Witcher was certainly pushing its boulder uphill after season 2, but Cavill’s departure from his role made this far harder. Any recasting in a TV show or movie franchise is going to be challenging to come back from, but the Geralt actor was one of the most celebrated aspects of the Netflix series. Though plot details and changes to the canon were heavily criticized, Cavill was generally regarded as the perfect man for the role. Not only this but as a self-described fan of the Witcher books and video games, Cavill was seen as a sort of champion of the fandom.
The actor had stated that he would be happy to commit to all seven seasons of The Witcher so long as the sanctity of the world was preserved.
Though it has never been entirely clear why Cavill decided to leave The Witcher after he had previously voiced his passion regarding the project, it is commonly believed that this had something to do with the show’s changes to Sapkowski’s books. The actor had stated that he would be happy to commit to all seven seasons of The Witcher so long as the sanctity of the world was preserved. Since this didn’t happen, it’s not much of a surprise that he bailed. As the honorary leader of the Witcher fans, Cavill’s departure means many lost loyalty to the franchise. Ultimately, this took away whatever chance season 3 had left.
Can The Witcher’s 7-Season Plan Still Happen?
The Witcher Could Continue After The Netflix Series Has Had Time To Age
As The Witcher begins production on season 4, the confirmation that season 5 will happen is still great news, especially considering the difficulties the show has faced up to this point. Netflix giving the greenlight on two more seasons despite these failures proves that there is still some faith in the potential of the franchise, and though The Witcher season 5 will mean the end of this central story, it’s always possible that an incarnation of the original seven-season plan will hit the small screen eventually. After all, there is still an opportunity for various spinoffs and sequels, especially in the years following The Witcher’s ending.
After some distance from the immediate controversies, it’s possible that a The Witcher sequel or spinoff would be far better received.
The Witcher is smack-dab under the microscope at the moment, but after things are wrapped with season 5, the series will have some time to age and mature. This is one of the great benefits of streaming—a critically panned movie or TV show can suddenly gain new life, surprising everyone by becoming a cult classic years after the fact. After some distance from the immediate controversies, it’s possible that a The Witcher sequel or spinoff would be far better received, thus providing the opportunity for those two additional planned seasons to finally happen with a more positive reception. Of course, only time will tell.
