New The Witcher spinoff The Rats ominously wraps filming months early
By Daniel Roman
The first half of The Witcher season 3 is out now on Netflix, and it’s a big one. This is an important season for the series; it’s the last outing for actor Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia before he’s replaced by Liam Hemsworth starting in season 4. There’s extra pressure on this season thanks to the poor reception to last year’s live-action prequel spinoff The Witcher: Blood Origin. The mothership show had things to prove, and by most accounts it stepped up.
There are three more episodes of season 3 to come. After that, there’s a new season coming about the Rats, a group of teenage bandits who take from the rich and give to the poor, at least when it suits them. We’ve already met one member of the Rats in the new episodes, although the show stopped short of outright naming her: Mistle, played by Christelle Elwin.
The Witcher spinoff The Rats only filmed for two months. Is it being cut down like Blood Origin?
While Netflix hasn’t actually announced the Rats spinoff in any official capacity yet, the show started filming in South Africa back in April. According to reliable Witcher scoop site Redanian Intelligence, The Rats was supposed to film from April until September of this year. However, it’s since come out that the production, which was codenamed “Riff Raff,” wrapped filming on July 1. In addition, RI had heard that Rats was supposed to be an eight-episode miniseries; that seems unlikely now, considering the highly condensed filming window.
As such, we’re wondering if Rats is now going to be a much shorter series, or even a feature-length movie. This situation is slightly different than The Witcher: Blood Origin, which was also supposed to run for six episodes instead of its final count of four. The cuts to Blood Origin happened during editing. Rats cutting principal filming short is more unusual.
Until we hear more, The Witcher season 3 volume 1 is streaming now on Netflix. Volume 2 is due out on July 27. As for The Rats, we’ll probably see it sometime in 2024, unless they’re pitching the whole thing.
Next. The Witcher season 3: All 5 episodes reviewed and explained. dark
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