Set in a time where the fantasy saga was relatively more mundane doesn’t make Blood Origin much more peaceful by the looks of this teaser trailer. Set during an anomalous magical event - or, from some points of view, an outright catastrophe - where multiple different worlds and dimensions are temporarily exposed to each other, Blood Origin tells the tale of how the thoroughly messed up world Geralt has to mop up came into being. The Continent is, or was, a magic-free realm inhabited by elves, dwarves, gnomes mainly, among some other fantasy species. Headlined by Michelle Yeoh, Sophia Brown, and Laurence O’Fuarain, the Netflix exclusive streaming show will depict some of the conflicts this world was enduring even before eldritch nonsense made things more complicated, and how the Conjuncture of the Spheres really made a mess of it. The introduction of magic, monsters and humans (arguably these two are in the same category, really) will set off a chain of events that, according to the showrunners, will culminate in the creation of the first “prototype Witcher”. Being set 1200 years prior to the events of the books (or show, or games, sort of?) means that the process is likely going to be very experimental at this stage. Details aren’t really abundant in this teaser, which mostly focuses on sweeping panoramas of a Standard Fantasy Setting ™ and a bunch of close-up shots of actors looking concerned about something or other. We also get a few brief glimpses of battle scenes where it looks like the elder races are fighting off human invaders, but it isn’t quite clear. The teaser is also notably lacking magic or monsters, though we imagine the flashier goods are being kept for a longer trailer closer to release. Speaking of release, this new teaser still hasn’t revealed when Blood Origin will premiere, but we know that it is coming sometime in 2022. Meanwhile if you’re all fired up for The Witcher content, the Netflix series just recently got its second season which is being met with rave reception. There’s also Nightmare of the Wolf, a one-shot anime movie about a young Vesemir, and work is currently progressing on the main show’s third season. Henry Cavill’s depiction of Geralt quickly became a fan favorite, and it’s clear that Netflix sees a big future for the franchise. Blood Origin will mark the biggest departure of any licensed Witcher media from the books themselves, breaking away from established characters, locations, events and eras to focus on a historically significant but only ever vaguely described period of time in the lore. We’re definitely interested how this new, original story will fare, and whether it will be able to pull the same kind of audience as a mainline Witcher series.
