Why is Netflix’s Witcher prequel movie animated?

We probably won’t be seeing the second season of Netflix’s fantasy his The Witcher until 2021; with production on pause thanks to the spread of the coronavirus, that’s basically a guarantee at this point. But Netflix is mindful to give us some kind of Witcher content between then and now. To that end, it’s been working on an animated Witcher movie: The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf.

Nightmare of the Wolf will be all about Vesemir, Geralt of Rivia’s mentor. But this movie is set before the two meet. “Long before mentoring Geralt, Vesemir begins his own journey as a witcher after the mysterious Deglan claims him through the Law of Surprise,” reads the synopsis. Beyond that, we don’t really know what the story is about.

And writer Beau DeMayo isn’t telling, although he did offer some thoughts on why he and Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich decided to make an animated feature rather than follow in the footsteps of the show and go with something live-action. “I actually started out my career working as an assistant and executive at Disney in animation, and it was there where I first got my job in the industry,” DeMayo told ComicBook.com. “So I was aware when Lauren came and asked me to write it, what we could do in animation that you cannot do in live-action. There is not necessarily always parity between those two mediums. There are things that you can animate in an animated form that will look so amazing, so badass, that if you did it in action, in live-action, it’s just going to look goofy or it’s just going to register as a little false to the human eye.”

"There’s a grace and an art form to animation, and especially anime, that allows a different flavor. So I think from Lauren and I’s perspective when we came at it, was what is the type of story we can tell? Which, I can’t tell you the story, but what is the type of story that we could tell that we could never tell in our live-action scope?"

So Nightmare of the Wolf won’t only be an animated movie, it’ll be an anime. Netflix has produced its fair share of anime-inspired movies and shows, so this isn’t coming out of nowhere. I wouldn’t complain too much if the style was similar to what we got in Netflix’s Castlevania show, for instance.

As for animation being able to tell stories you couldn’t tell in live-action…well, granted, but the base Witcher show tells a pretty far-out story with monsters and elves and magic and everything, and it still worked pretty well in live-action, janky-looking dragons notwithstanding. Still, it sounds like DeMayo has something else planned for Nightmare of the Wolf:

"And the script itself, there are certain things it takes advantage of in terms of animation that only animation can do. I think that’s what’s the most exciting thing that I’m waiting for fans to see. Is that, when you see the anime, it’s not just the events, it’s what Studio Mir has been capable of pulling off. It’s what our partners in the anime division at Netflix have been able to pull off. It is something… it is a story we could not have told in live-action in any way, shape or form. At least not with an incredible burden on production, I will say that."

I wonder how much that had to do with the decision: maybe they could have pulled off the story in live-action, but Netflix doesn’t have unlimited money for that kind of thing, even if it might seem like they do.

Still, animation brings a charm all its own, and the sequences put together by CD Projekt Red for their Witcher video games prove that an animated Witcher movie could work:

Unfortunately, we don’t know when The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf will be available to watch. As an animated movie, let’s hope work can safely continue to some degree even if shooting on the main show is suspended for a while. We also don’t know who’s going to play Vesemir. Kim Bodnia will play the older version of the character on season 2 of the show.

Maybe Mark Hamill can voice him?

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels