The Witcher season 4 premiered on Thursday, Oct. 30. We all knew that was going to happen, thanks to Netflix, who usually shares release dates for all of its shows and movies. But, Liam Hemsworth and season 4 aren't the only new Witchers today.
Netflix secretly dropped The Rats: A Witcher Tale on Oct. 30 with The Witcher season 4. The show never appeared on Netflix's October lineup. The release date wasn't announced. It was just there on Netflix alongside The Witcher season 4.
There were a few reports and rumors that Netflix was going to release this secret special about The Rats on Oct. 30. Redanian Intelligence, as they always do, had the scoop on The Witcher special news, but I've been doing this long enough to know that nothing is official until the streaming kings at Netflix say so. And, I guess they said so, because you can watch the hour-and-a-half special about The Rats on Netflix right now.
What is The Rats: A Witcher Tale?
If you've watched The Witcher season 3 or are familiar with Andrzej Sapkowksi's works, you know of The Rats. The group is basically a gang of misfits, traversing the Continent and using their powers, experiences, and acquired gifts to live for another day.
The group consists of Mistle (Christelle Elwin), Asse (Connor Crawford), Giselher (Ben Radcliffe), Iskra (Aggy K. Adams), Kayleigh (Fabian McCallum), and Reef (Juliette Alexandra). Oh, and while she's not in this part of their story, Ciri (Freya Allan) spends a lot of time with them. She's basically an honorary Rat.
In this special, the gang's next mission is a "dangerous heist."
Here's the official synopsis for the special, via Netflix:
"A gang of six teenage thieves plans a dangers heist, but when past secrets reveal hidden agendas, they learn this job is not as simple as it seems."
But, wait! Wasn't The Rats supposed to be a Witcher spinoff? What happened?
So, this is a bit confusing, but The Rats was positioned to be a spinoff of The Witcher at one point in time, and then things got very weird. In the summer of 2023 in the middle of The Witcher season 3, there were reports that The Rats actually wrapped filming months earlier than expected, which likely mean that the show was going to be canceled.
Months later, in the spring of 2024 that The Rats was getting repurposed either in The Witcher season 4 or into another project. Ultimately, that's what happened. This summer, in 2025, it was reported that The Rats would be more a "special," rather than a full spinoff of The Witcher.
The powers that be obviously know what happened behind the scenes and why the decisions were made to chop up The Rats into one special episode rather than a full spinoff. Based on the reception to the other Witcher shows and movies set in this universe, it's probably for the best, but it's still a bummer because this crew is one of my favorites in The Witcher! I would rather spend more time with them than some of the main characters of The Witcher, but that's for another time.
It's still baffling that Netflix just didn't promote The Rats: A Witcher Tale at all! Sure, there's a TUDUM article breaking down the important information. We all know Stranger Things 5 is the main priority at HQ right now, but not even a press release to announce this special? That's wild.
Watch The Rats: A Witcher Tale on Netflix right now, along with The Witcher season 4!