Liam Hemsworth as Gerlalt smiling slightly in The Witcher season 4
By
Felipe Rangel
Published 15 minutes ago
Felipe Rangel is a Superheroes Lead Writer and Reviewer at ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021, with a focus on superhero projects. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Since the launch of the Superheroes vertical in 2023, he has focused his efforts on coming up with insightful analyses of Marvel and DC's projects.
Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."
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Netflix's new movie in The Witcher universe rises in streaming charts to become a major hit globally, doing so despite The Witcher season 4's divisive status. DC's former Superman star, Henry Cavill, led the first three seasons of the hit fantasy series. However, Geralt of Rivia was recast for The Witcher season 4, with Liam Hemsworth taking over the role.
The move was controversial, as Cavill, a vocal fan of The Witcher universe, was the driving force behind the show's popularity. The first of Hemsworth's two seasons as Geralt, with The Witcher season 5 ending the series, garnered mixed to negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, The Witcher season 4 holds a 58% score from critics and a low 20% audience score.
Despite The Witcher season 4's divisive reception, the franchise's new movie proves itself a global hit on Netflix. According to data from FlixPatrol, The Rats: A Witcher Tale movie special is the 5th most-watched movie on Netflix worldwide at the time of writing. The feature-length spinoff clocks in at 1 hour and 22 minutes, exploring The Witcher season 4 characters.
The Rats on the cover of A Witcher Tale
The rats played a major role in the latest season of the Netflix series, with Freya Allan's Ciri joining the group and engaging in petty crimes with the merry band of misfits. As the season progressed, things escalated, with Ciri choosing to leave the group, only for the rats to fall into a trap that would see the entire group killed and Ciri captured.
Given their deaths in The Witcher season 4's ending, The Rats: A Witcher Tale is a prequel movie that explores the team's timeline, including a huge heist and elements like their connection to their eventual killer, Leo Bonhart, until they meet Ciri in the main show. All the rats from The Witcher season 4 return in the prequel, with an exciting addition to The Witcher universe.
Veteran action star Dolph Lundgren joins the Netflix franchise as Brehen, a Witcher who ends up serving as a mentor/father figure to the rats beyond just a partner. Given that the rats' past is not really explored in the main series, the spinoff offers the chance for fans to understand the group's journey and make their eventual fall more impactful.
While The Witcher season 4 was met with mixed to negative reviews, the Netflix franchise remains popular, as proven by The Rats: A Witcher Tale's worldwide performance. With The Witcher season 5 marking the end of the flagship show, perhaps the future for the franchise on Netflix lies in spinoff movies and series, which do not have to deal with Henry Cavill being recast.
The Witcher (2019) TV Show Logo/Poster
The Witcher
Created by
Andrzej Sapkowski
First Film
The Hexer (Wiedźmin)
Latest Film
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf
First TV Show
The Hexer (Wiedźmin)
Latest TV Show
The Witcher
Upcoming TV Shows
The Witcher
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