Netflix has officially announced The Witcher: Blood Origin, a prequel series to their wildly successful fantasy show The Witcher. Based on the book series by Andrzej Sapkowski and its subsequent video games, The Witcher was first announced to be in development back in 2017, but it wasn't until late 2019 that it finally made its debut. It stars Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, the titular Witcher, as he travels the world known as the Continent and encounters a whole host of monstrous beings as his destiny collides with several others'.

Even though it didn't debut until the very end of 2019, The Witcher became a near-instant success for Netflix. A second season was announced even before the first arrived, further demonstrating Netflix's confidence in the brand. Production began on season 2 of The Witcher earlier this year, but the coronavirus pandemic forced things to draw to a halt back in March. However, even despite this delay with the flagship show, Netflix continues to focus on The Witcher with this latest announcement.

Related: The Witcher: Everything We Know About Geralt's Season 2 Role

Today, Netflix announced the development of The Witcher: Blood Origin. It will be set 1200 years before Geralt's story and will tell the origin of the very first Witcher. Additional details have yet to be revealed, though it is clear that The Witcher: Blood Origin will be a 6-part live-action series, and The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich will produce alongside Declan de Barra.

Per the official logline provided by Netflix, The Witcher: Blood Origin will see the "worlds of monsters, men and elves merged into one." Therefore, it seems like this will be about two different origins: That of the Witchers, as well as the world fans know from the original series. De Barra, who serves as a writer on The Witcher, said about this new show, "A question has been burning in my mind ever since I first read ‘The Witcher’ books – What was the Elven world really like before the cataclysmic arrival of the humans?" He continued, "‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’ will tell the tale of the Elven civilization before its fall, and most importantly reveal the forgotten history of the very first Witcher." For those interested in the history of the Continent and its civilization, The Witcher: Blood Origin sounds like the perfect series. It'll be interesting to see how the first Witcher ends up comparing to Geralt.

Considering the scope of The Witcher's fantasy realm, it isn't too surprising that it has yielded its own spin-off. After all, many have compared The Witcher to Game of Thrones, and that series is getting a prequel as well. The Witcher: Blood Origin seems to still be in the early development stages, which means it might be a while before fans get to see it. Before then, though, Netflix will likely prioritize season 2 of The Witcher, which resumes production next month. While it might be a while before these projects end up on fans' screens, at least they can rest assured that they'll be learning a lot more about the Witchers and their world in the future.

More: The Witcher: Why Henry Cavill Wanted To Play Geralt

Source: Netflix