The Witcher: Blood Origin prequel series condensed from six episodes to four?

Netflix had announced that the prequel series The Witcher: Blood Origin, which is set in “an elven world” 1200 years before the events we saw in The Witcher, would have a six episode run. But now the Witcher fan site Redanian Intelligance reports that they’ve heard the show is being condensed from six episodes down to four.

Here’s the Redanian Intelligence report:

Keep in mind that the footage was already shot as six episodes, which likely means heavier editing and potentially lots of footage on the cutting room floor. To support that, we learned the writing credits for all of the Blood Origin episodes and they go like this:

Episode 1: Declan de Barra
Episode 2: Alex Meenehan/Aaron Stewart-Ahn
Episode 3: Tania Lotia/Kiersten Van Horne
Episode 4: Declan de Barra/Tasha Huo

We can’t claim to know all the ins and outs of how crediting works legally in these very peculiar cases, but it has been observed in the past that when things get edited and combined and passed on, the credits normally get merged as well. What’s interesting is that with Blood Origin, the premiere and the finale are untouched. There are no additional names on either episodes than what we knew before. That may suggest that it’s mostly episodes 2, 3, 4 and 5 that are being taken apart as we speak and edited into just 2 and 3. The first and last episodes are very likely affected as well, but judging by the credits, probably not as much as the middle ones.

The site has also heard that the role The Witcher character Jaskier (played by Joey Batey) will play on Blood Origin has been expanded in reshoots. Their sources tell them “Jaskier is going to appear in at least a present-day prologue, telling the story of Blood Origin to his crowd. He then would be interrupted by an elf who would refute Jaskier’s colorful and incorrect version of events and proceed to tell the real thing.” That was always the plan, but they’re not sure how much more Jaskier has been added through the reshoots.

The Witcher: Blood Origin tells

a story lost to time – the creation of the first prototype Witcher, and the events that lead to the pivotal “conjunction of the spheres,” when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one.

Blood Origin stars Laurence O’Fuarain as Fjall, who was born into a clan of warriors sworn to protect a King and is now on a quest for redemption; Sophia Brown as Éile, an elite warrior who left her clan to become a nomadic musician; Michelle Yeoh as Scían, the last from a tribe of sword-elves; Lenny Henry as a character named Balor; Mirren Mack as Merwyn; Nathaniel Curtis as Brían; Dylan Moran as Uthrok One-Nut; Jacob Collins Levy as Eredin; Lizzie Annis as Zacaré; Huw Novelli as Callan, a.k.a. “Brother Death”; Francesca Mills as Meldof; Amy Murray as Fenrik; and Zach Wyatt as Syndril.

It was previously reported that Sarah O’Gorman (Cursed) directed the first, fourth, and sixth episodes of the series. The second, third, and fifth episodes were directed by Vicky Jewson (Close). If Redanian Intelligence’s report pans out, it sounds like some of the episodes will now be a mixture of footage directed by O’Gorman and Jewson.

The Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich and Blood Origin showrunner Declan De Barra serve as executive producers on The Witcher: Blood Origin, alongside Matt O’Toole, Hivemind’s Jason Brown and Sean Daniel, and Tomek Baginski and Jarek Sawko of Platige Films. Sapkowski is involved as creative consultant.

What do you think of the Blood Origin episode count being cut down? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.