Netflix to release a Witcher anime film

The Witcher is already one of Netflix’s most popular shows — at least according to its confusing new metrics — so it’s no surprise that it’s getting a spinoff. On Wednesday afternoon, the streaming giant announced that it was in development on an anime film set in The Witcher universe. The news was first reported on fansite Renadian Intelligence, and later confirmed by io9 before Netflix officially announced the news.

The film will be called The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, and will expand on the world of the series by “exploring a powerful new threat facing the Continent.” While the press release isn’t quite clear about what that means, it does sound like it will move the action away from the main plot of the show and focus on a side story.

The spinoff is being developed by The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and producer Beau DeMayo. Animation is being handled by Studio Mir, the Korean studio behind acclaimed animated shows like The Legend of Korra and Netflix’s Voltron: Legendary Defenders.

For now the spinoff has only been announced as one single film, and it isn’t clear if it will continue after that. The Witcher has already been renewed for a second season, though the producers have said that season 2 won’t be released until sometime in 2021. The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf doesn’t have a release date yet.

Update (Jan. 30): The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf finally has an official page on Netflix, and it comes with a brief plot description. It seems the show will follow Geralt’s mentor Vesemir as he undergoes his own witcher training, under the tutelage of “the mysterious Deglan.”