The Witcher season 4 has arrived, which signifies that everybody goes to get an opportunity to lastly weigh in on the franchise’s (daring? foolhardy?) option to swap out its lead actor midway via its run and whether or not Liam Hemsworth is able to filling Henry Cavill’s boots. (Spoiler alert: He’s…principally tremendous?)
But it surely seems that season 4 isn’t the one Witcher-associated property that followers have the choice to stream right this moment. Netflix additionally stunned everybody with the discharge of a brand new standalone movie that goals to flesh out a key group of characters from the brand new season. The Rats: A Witcher Story tells the story of a gaggle of misfit younger thieves who change into Ciri’s (Freya Allan) surrogate household whereas she’s hiding out from her future on the fringes of Nilfgaard.
Reportedly, the venture was initially conceptualized as a restricted sequence, a la The Witcher: Blood Origin. However Netflix shut down manufacturing in 2023 earlier than it was accomplished, selecting as a substitute to sew the prevailing footage collectively right into a one-off particular episode. Your mileage could differ in terms of what you suppose this launch technique signifies in regards to the ultimate consequence’s doubtless total high quality, however the impetus to do one thing with these characters is sensible. Given all the pieces else that’s occurring in The Witcher season 4, Ciri’s new gang of pals are largely underdeveloped as particular person characters on the flagship sequence, leaving the form of narrative hole that spinoffs and prequels are naturally primed to discover.
Set simply earlier than the group crosses paths with Ciri on the finish of season 3, The Rats particulars the formation of their ragtag collective and their first encounter with the vicious bounty hunter Leo Bonhart (Sharlto Copley), who performs a pivotal function of their destiny within the newest season of The Witcher. (The truth that they’ve met Bonhart earlier than is referenced however not defined throughout season 4.) The plot revolves round a harmful heist at a brutal preventing area and introduces none aside from Dolph Lundgren (!!!) as Brehen, a witcher from the notorious Faculty of the Cat, whom they recruit to assist them pull off their theft.
