Canceled Witcher spinoff The Rats may be repurposed as "special episode"
By Dan Selcke
Since The Witcher became a hit in 2019, Netflix has tried several times to spin the series off. Sometimes that's been successful, like with the 2021 film The Nightmare of the Wolf. At other times it's been a disaster, like with the cringeworthy 2022 prequel show Blood Origin.
The base series has endured its share of controversy as well; I look forward to how people react when season 4 debuts and we have to get used to Liam Hemsworth in the lead role of Geralt of Rivia, formerly played by Henry Cavill. In the meantime, Netflix is still going forward with spinoffs, but it's been messy.
Take The Rats, a limited series that was going to be about the crew of rough-and-tumble teenaged thieves that Princess Ciri (Freya Allan) meets at the end of season 3. The Rats will be back in season 4, but this series would have followed them on their own. However, after filming for a couple of months in 2023, production was shut down, whether because of the actors and writers strikes, because Netflix didn't like the direction the series was going in, or both. In any case, the streamer opted not to go forward with the full show.
However, Netflix still may try and repurpose what footage they did shoot. In 2023, casting director Sophie Holland talked about the possibility of turning it into an ordinary episode of The Witcher to run at some point during season 4. Now, Redanian Intelligence has noticed that director Mairzee Almas has listed The Rats as a "special episode" on her LinkedIn page.
RI also reveals the title for whatever this ends up being: The Rats: A Witcher Tale. That definitely makes it sound like something that Netflix is planning to release separately rather than as a part of season 4. I like the idea that they could release it between Part 1 and Part 2 of season 4, giving the fans something to snack on in the weeks between new episodes.
As for when this will all go down, our best guess is that Netflix will start to roll out The Witcher season 4 sometime in 2025. In the meantime, there is one more spinoff on the way: an animated movie called The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, which is out sometime this year. One of these has to hit sooner or later, right?
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