Movie News

Scrapped The Witcher spin-off The Rats may be resurrected as a movie

By Cody Hamman

Posted 7 months ago

A scrapped The Witcher spin-off mini-series called The Rats may be resurrected as a feature film called The Rats: A Witcher Tale

Netflix was building up their series The Witcher, which is inspired by a series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, to be a major franchise. In addition to the flagship show, they made the anime films The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf and The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, a prequel mini-series called The Witcher: Blood Origin, and a couple other spin-offs were in the works… but recently, it has looked like it was all winding down. The Witcher season 4 wrapped production a while back with Liam Hemsworth taking over the role of Geralt of Rivia from former star Henry Cavill, Netflix announced that season 5 will be the end of the show, and it was said that two spin-offs, one called The Rats and another a show that would have been aimed at younger viewers, had been scrapped. Now, Whats-on-Netflix is reporting that The Rats may be rescued from the scrap heap and resurrected as a feature film.

As Whats-on-Netflix reports, talk of The Rats first started back in 2021. Originally intended to be a mini-series like Blood Origin, the project went into production in South Africa in 2023… but rumors indicate that when Netflix saw some early footage, they decided not continue with the show and pulled the plug when it was just two months into its six month filming schedule. Throughout 2024, rumors swirled that the existing footage could be worked into The Witcher season 4 as a special episode, worked into flashback sequences in season 4, or be turned into a standalone movie. Now, it sounds like Netflix has decided to go ahead with the movie option, and they’re calling it The Rats: A Witcher Tale.

Directed by Mairzee Almas and scripted by Haily Hall, The Rats has the following logline: Six teenage thieves must rely on their criminal skills as they plan the biggest heist of their careers against the most dangerous crime ring in the kingdom.

About the Author

Cody Hamman

Horror News Editor

19,031 Articles Published

Favorite Movies: The Friday the 13th franchise, Kevin Smith movies, the films of read more George A. Romero (especially the initial Dead trilogy), Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1 & 2, FleshEater, Intruder, Let the Right One In, Return of the Living Dead, The Evil Dead, Jaws, Tremors, From Dusk Till Dawn, Phantasm, Halloween, The Hills Have Eyes, Back to the Future trilogy, Dazed and Confused, the James Bond series, Mission: Impossible, the MCU, the list goes on and on

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