The Witcher Suffers Massive Retcon Because of Blood Origin
Before even its premiere on December 25, 2022, The Witcher's prequel, Blood Origin, is already altering the original Netflix show, specifically its timeline.
Based on The Witcher book series by Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher: Blood Origin will take place 1,200 years prior to the events of The Witcher. Besides showing us ancient Elves before their extinction, the fantasy miniseries consisting of four episodes will depict events resulting in the "Conjunction of the Spheres," a huge cataclysmic event that created the modern-day Witcher universe as we see in the Netflix series.
Placing the events of the miniseries 1,200 before The Witcher is already a change from the lore since the books clearly state that the Conjunction of the Spheres happened 1,500 years prior to Geralt's time. However, there's an even bigger alteration from the source the creators of the miniseries intend to make. The creators of the miniseries reported that Blood Origin will show the creation of the first Witcher. This makes the Witcher species 900 older than in the book canon, where the Witchers came into existence only 300 years before Geralt was born.
Since the age and creation of the Witchers were never explored in the original Netflix show, this change could seem insignificant. But this is quite a shift for the saga as a whole. The Witcher species becoming that ancient makes Geralt's background more mysterious and deep. Additionally, portraying the Witchers will connect The Witcher and its prequel, which could become a treat for an audience who has never read novels. However, the creators of the upcoming fantasy miniseries still could get tricky and show a big time jump 900 years forward to remain true to the canon.
Meanwhile, The Witcher fans don't sound too excited about the upcoming miniseries, with or without the Witchers being in it. The fans fear the prequel could be designed as more of a blatant cash grab than a fitting tribute to the lore.
"It doesn't feel like it was tailored to the Witcher's audience. Superficially, I don't see grittiness in the trailer. What I did like about the trailer is that it communicated nothing about the plot. The casting of the characters seems fine for now, but it looks like generic fantasy. I hope there is nuance both politically and emotionally," Redditor cylvus has written.