I have a long and complicated history with Netflix's adaptation of The Witcher. As someone who's sunk hundreds of hours into the video games and read all the books, I've often vacillated between disappointment and frustration when watching the television series, which tends to toss out wide swathes of its source material or even directly contradict its spirit. But that doesn't mean I'm thoughtless with my criticism; on the contrary, I love to do a good deep dive on this series and dissect what's working and what isn't. That's why, unlike many Henry Cavill-obsessed fans who were too bitter over the actor's departure to give The Witcher season 3 a proper shake, I generally thought it was a huge step in the right direction after the enormous missteps of season 2. But that doesn't mean I've forgotten all the times The Witcher burned me in the past.
All this is important to state up front, because I want you to know that when I tell you the new animated spinoff movie The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is really good, it's not because I've blindly boarded the hype train. I've been let down by Netflix's approach to The Witcher, and consistently vocal about the reasons why for years.
Thankfully, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is a new high point for Netflix's hit fantasy franchise. Yes, it deviates plenty from Andrzej Sapkowski's books, but those changes work much better than most of those seen in the mothership show; they actually feel like they're in service to the story, and in keeping with the spirit of the written works and games. After struggling to find its footing in other spinoffs, Sirens of the Deep finally cracks the code, delivering a tight hour-and-a-half experience that tells a complete story about Geralt of Rivia's early days as a monster hunter.
Beware FULL SPOILERS for The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep beyond this point.
Sirens of the Deep honors the entire legacy of The Witcher
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep takes place between episodes 5 and 6 of the mothership show's first season, when Geralt of Rivia and his bard companion Jaskier are adventuring around the Continent. If you're keeping track, that means it happens after Geralt has met and been bound by a djinn to his on-again-off-again sorceress lover Yennefer of Vengerberg, but before they have their massive blow-out on the dragon hunt. Sirens of the Deep happens during one of the "off" periods of their relationship.
This is important, because Geralt has a new romantic interest here: a young bard named Essi Daven. Geralt and Essi's relationship isn't the main storyline of Sirens of the Deep, but it's the beating heart of it. The actual monster hunt Geralt finds himself wrapped up in involves a seaside human settlement called Bremervoord whose residents are at odds with the local merpeople. The two civilizations are encroaching on each other, which makes things difficult for the human prince, Agloval, and his mermaid princess lover Sh'eenaz. Agloval and Sh'eenaz's story is an interesting parallel to Essi and Geralt's, which is very much in keeping with the original short story by Andrzej Sapkowski.
Speaking of Sapkowski, let's talk about what's under the hood. Sirens of the Deep is based on the short story "A Little Sacrifice," which appears in the book Sword of Destiny. It's one of the short stories that The Witcher wasn't able to fit into the first season of the show, and since it's one of the better ones, I'm glad that Netflix decided to revisit it.
Sirens of the Deep is directed by Kang Hei Chul, who also worked on the previous Witcher anime spinoff Nightmare of the Wolf, and animated by Studio Mir (Avatar: The Legend of Korra). Since Henry Cavill is no longer playing Geralt in the mainline show, Netflix tapped Doug Cockle, the voice actor who played Geralt in the video games. Cockle's performance as Geralt in the games is iconic, so it should go without saying that he's also excellent here. He steps seamlessly across mediums in Sirens of the Deep, and the movie is so much better for it. No matter how much you may have loved Henry Cavill as Geralt, I don't see anyone missing him in this movie. Cockle is just too good at playing the witcher.
The rest of the voice cast is also great. Joey Batey and Anya Chalotra reprise their roles as Jaskier and Yennefer from the live-action show. Newcomers like Christina Wren (Essi) and Simon Templemen (King Usveldt) turn in solid performances, and there's even a surprise appearance from House of the Dragon star Emily Carey as the mermaid princess Sh'eenaz. The subtle sing-song language of the merpeople is also a lot of fun to listen to; immense kudos to the team who designed it.
Add all of that together, and you have a movie which is strongly attached to Netflix's Witcher universe while nailing the tone of the games and paying homage to the book series. Sirens of the Deep is the first piece of Witcher media the streamer has produced that really feels like the best of all worlds.
Who says a witcher can't crack jokes?
Despite my assertion above that Sirens of the Deep does a great job honoring its source material, there are obviously quite a lot of changes. An hour-and-a-half anime film is a very different beast than a short story, and both versions of the tale make the most of their given mediums. Sirens of the Deep has more plot twists, more characters, a lot more action, an extra villain, and a slightly different ending than "A Little Sacrifice."
For all those changes, Sirens of the Deep never loses sight of the core of Sapkowski's story, which is about lovers needing to make "a little sacrifice" in the name of their relationship when life and circumstances demand — or going their own way, if they're not able. The troubles between Agloval and Sh'eenaz's people mirror the burgeoning relationship between Geralt and Essi, who are attracted to one another but can never truly be together on account of their divergent life paths.
Sirens of the Deep also absolutely crushes it in the humor department. This is the funniest piece of Witcher media Netflix has yet made. Given how dark both the books and games can get, it's easy to forget that they have a strong comedic streak. Earlier seasons of the Netflix show tapped into this in small ways, such as Henry Cavill's grunted curses, but Cockle's performance as Geralt feels more innately humorous, even when he's delivering serious lines. In his hands, Geralt's cynicism is edged with a sarcasm that makes it easy to believe he finds his own jokes funny.
Batey also really delivers as Jaskier. Despite how good the voice acting is in the games, Batey has gradually become the definitive actor for the bard in my opinion, and here we see him bring his full range of talents to bear. He and Cockle are amazing together. But as good as the voice acting is, much of the comedy comes down to razor-sharp scripting and animation. My favorite gag in the entire movie is a silent one where someone insults Geralt in a blistering speech to another character, and Jaskier places a consoling hand on the witcher's shoulder. These little bits of comedic flair infuse the entire production, and Sirens of the Deep is much better for it.
Is that you, Ursula?
For all my gushing about Sirens of the Deep, there were still a few things that bugged me about it. One is the action. Generally speaking it looks awesome, with fluid animation and good staging. But Geralt does fly around the screen like an anime character in a way that breaks the immersion slightly. I think that because we've seen him so much in live-action and the games, where he is supernaturally strong and fast but still moves like a normal human being, it creates some cognitive dissonance when he bounces around in the air in the animated film. It's by no means bad — it's a stylistic choice — but I didn't love it even when I was enjoying the action scenes themselves. (Though it did make me very excited for Studio Mir's next project, Devil May Cry, where that sort of balls-to-the-walls anime action will be a much better fit.)
The other thing I didn't love about Sirens of the Deep is how it played off The Little Mermaid. Sapkowski's original short story feels like it's rooted in folklore, but Sirens of the Deep makes a lot of choices that are designed specifically to play off Disney's take on The Little Mermaid. The film adds a new villain, Melusina (Mallory Jansen), who is very obviously a stand-in for Ursula. She's Sh'eenaz's aunt, who is also a sea witch, who gives her a potion that will make her grow legs (thus depriving the underwater kingdom of an heir and getting petty revenge for a past wrong), and even turns into a giant tentacle-laden kraken by the end of the film. Melusina is an interesting character, and the kraken in particular is a highlight...but she also breaks out in song at one point in a scene that slapped me right out of the film.
This isn't the first time The Witcher has had strange music choices. Season 3 featured a group of bards who played jarringly contemporary music, music that screamed "this is a Hollywood production" in a way that felt decidedly at odds with the series' folkloric tone. Sirens of the Deep continues that trend. It bothered me less than it did in The Witcher season 3, but it was still distracting. At this point, I'm starting to think that's going to become a regular quirk of each new installment in Netflix's Witcher universe, similar to the way author Brandon Sanderson sometimes uses bits of jarringly modern parlance in his Cosmere novels. Is it a flaw or a feature? It's all in the eye of the beholder, I guess.
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep ends by making bold choices
The last thing I want to talk about is the ending for Sirens of the Deep. It makes some pretty big changes from Sapkowski's written works...while somehow also managing to stay pretty true to the source material. In the short story, the mermaid Sh'eenaz ultimately decides to undergo a procedure which gives her legs so that she can live on land with her love, Duke Agloval. Sirens of the Deep flips the script by having Agloval (who is a prince in the movie rather than a duke) drink a potion which turns him into a merman. He and Sh'eenaz live together happily ever after while Agloval's power-hungry father King Usveldt (who does not exist in the short story) is forced to accept that his arrogance cost him both of his sons.
This is an added bit of moral complexity that feels totally appropriate for The Witcher. It recalls the bleak justice Geralt often sees doled out in the games and books; in this world, even when there's a happy ending, someone is learning a hard lesson. Usvelt's plotline didn't exist in the short story, but short stories can only include so many different thematic ideas before they buckle under the weight. The movie had more room to flesh things out, and this addition is one that I think elevated the material.
Plus, I like that the film did something unexpected by having Agloval drink the potion instead of Sh'eenaz. We've all seen various takes on The Little Mermaid where the mermaid gives up her tail to live with her one true love. I wouldn't have begrudged Sirens of the Deep if it stuck to the source material by retreading that ground, but it's an inspired choice to spin things in an unexpected direction instead. It was a great emotional flourish to end the film.
The more difficult part of the ending to discuss is Geralt and Essi Daven's story. In the movie, as in the books, Essi and Geralt sleep together following their ordeal with the merpeople. The book paints this as a healing moment for Geralt. It's the first time he's been with anyone since Yennefer, and it helps him re-contextualize that rejection and move forward. This is all more or less the same in Sirens of the Deep.
The short story ends with Jaskier writing a song about Essi and Geralt's romance which reveals that, many years after their encounter, Essi dies in a plague. Jaskier thinks about how he wrote this song, making it sound more dramatic and beautiful rather than telling the true tale: that the witcher and Essi spent that evening together and then never saw each other again before her death. And in a beautiful twist, it's revealed that Jaskier never even played the song for anyone, but just wrote it for himself to memorialize the adventure.
It's an extremely resonant moment in Sapkowski's Witcher Saga, and one that I think anyone who's read the books would be waiting to see in Sirens of the Deep. However, the movie doesn't include it. Instead, we get to see Geralt and Essi make their own peace with the fact they can't be together, before the witcher and Jaskier move on. The film ends with a snarky joke about how they're heading to a remote mountain range where there is no chance they'll run into Yennefer. (Which of course they do; their destination is the setting for "Rare Species," the sixth episode in The Witcher season 1.)
I'll admit, I was a little disappointed to not see the short story's poignant ending...but I also think it was the right choice to cut it. This is a perfect example of different mediums demanding different types of storytelling. That sort of ending worked incredibly well for a short story, which packed maximum punch into a minimum amount of pages and could take liberties which drove a few core ideas home. But can you imagine if after 90 minutes of watching Geralt and Essi slowly circle one another before finally getting together, the movie then ended with a brief montage explaining she died years later? It probably would have felt off-putting, random, and out of place.
So even though Sirens of the Deep took a simpler path with its ending, at least where Geralt and Essi are concerned, I think it made for an overall better movie.
Verdict
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is a strong entry in Netflix's ongoing Witcher saga, which finally feels like it's found a good balance between honoring the books and games, and forging its own path. The story is poignant and full of unexpected twists and turns, the animation is smooth and gorgeous to look at, and the voice cast is excellent. Yes, it still has a few rough spots, namely when it leans too far into referencing Disney's The Little Mermaid rather than relying on the folkloric origins of the source myth, but they're far outweighed by the movie's strengths. This is a new gold standard for Netflix's Witcher spinoffs.
Movie grade: B+
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