By It’s been over two years since The Witcher‘s spinoff about the band of misfits called The Rats wrapped production and we still don’t know the project’s definitive fate and its current status. Nevertheless, we do keep learning new little things about it.
The production was reportedly a ‘disaster’
Over the last two years we’ve learned a few things about the production of The Rats from different sources. Unfortunately, they remained largely tight-lipped on details, but they let a few phrases slip like “behind the scenes was a disaster”, “worse than Blood Origin” and “everything went wrong” on this show.
Earlier in 2023, after filming prematurely wrapped, we heard that people in the upper echelons of Netflix saw some early footage and decided not continue with the show, hence why it only filmed for two months and not six as initially intended.
Filming did coincide with the 2023 WGA strikes, so that could have been a contributing factor there. Both Rats showrunner Haily Hall and The Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich were present in Cape Town, South Africa during the production of The Rats, albeit unable to make any edits as per strike rules.
We still lack substantial details about what exactly went wrong and how exactly the footage compared to Blood Origin, a show that was received quite poorly by viewers, but considered releasable by Netflix.
What has become of The Rats?
The fate of this project is still uncertain. On one hand we know that instead of a full miniseries, the existing footage was being retrofitted into a feature-length special called The Rats: A Witcher’s Tale. Post-production work on that was still ongoing right until filming for The Witcher Season 4 began.
On the other hand, we also heard that Netflix were considering to chop the footage up and serve it as flashbacks in The Witcher Season 4. That could explain why post-production for the Rats special didn’t continue past Spring 2024.
In the end, we still don’t know what Netflix ended up choosing out of these two options. Perhaps we’ll get that special in between two volumes of Season 4? Who knows.
What was The Rats about?
The Rats was intended to be a prequel miniseries consisting of 6 to 8 episodes, telling the story of the group of teenagers that Ciri meets at the end of The Witcher Season 3. This would be the time before they met Ciri, so Freya Allan wasn’t involved in this project.
There was a brief synopsis for the show: “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.”
The cast of The Rats included:
- Ben Radcliffe as Giselher
- Christelle Elwin as Mistle
- Fabian McCallum as Kayleigh
- Aggy K. Adams as Iskra
- Juliette Alexandra as Reef
- Connor Crawford as Asse
- Dolph Lundgren as Brehen
- Sharlto Copley as Leo Bonhart
- Deoudone Pretorius as Juniper
- Morgan Jade Santo as Dulcie
- Bianca Simone Mannie as Sonora
- Carla Fonseca Mokgata as Orla
- Litha Bam as Miss Skret
- Stevel Marc as Lord Ridot
- Aubrey Shelton as Barker
- Warren Masemola in an unknown role
Showrunner and main writer of The Rats is Haily Hall, who wrote multiple episodes in the first three seasons of The Witcher. Mairzee Almas (Shadow and Bone, The Sandman) served as director of The Rats.
The Witcher Season 4 is has been out since October 30, 2025. Andrzej Sapkowski’s new Witcher book Crossroads of Ravens is available internationally since September 30, 2025. CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 4 is now in full production.
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