Netflix 'The Witcher' Comic-Con Trailer Is "'Game of Thrones' on Steroids"

Welcome to the Continent. At San Diego Comic-Con, Netflix premiered its potential answer to Game of Thrones with the trailer for The Witcher, a new live-action series based on the novels by Andrzej Sapkowski and best-selling video games from developers CD Projekt Red.

Following its panel at Comic-Con in Hall H, where attendees on Twitter raved it was like “Game of Thrones on steroids,” Netflix released the trailer online which you can view yourself at the top of this page.

In The Witcher, Henry Cavill (Justice League, Mission: Impossible — Fallout) stars as the monster hunter named Geralt of Rivia, a silver-haired swordsman who navigates a bleak medieval-adjacent world where monsters, elves, witches, gnomes, and other beasts roam free. The show also stars Anya Chalotra (The ABC Murders) as Yennefer and Freya Allan (Into The Badlands) as Princess Ciri.

The series does not yet have a release date.

The trailer shows exactly what one could expect from a dark, violent, and sex-filled fantasy series. The show will also, of course, have monsters, with an Arachnomorph teased at the very end of the trailer.

At the panel, moderated by Yvette Nicole Brown (Community), Cavill, Charlota, and Allan were in attendance alongside series showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who emphasized how much the Netflix series is taking inspiration from the books over the video games.

“What’s so fascinating about it … in the books, there are all of this hints of these amazing backstories and you get to see little tiny glimpses in flashbacks,” Hissrich said (via Den of Geek). “We actually got to bring those to life, and I think it’s one of my favorite parts of the series is that… I would call it an addition to the books. We really took the books and honored that source material, but we were able to give characters a little more breathing room and really get to know them before these three eventually meet up.”

The panel also revealed a lot of fun behind the scenes nuggets that happened on the road to The Witcher. Cavill “begged” his agents to audition for the role (I’ve heard from my own sources that Cavill is a hardcore fan of the video games). 207 actors auditioned, but Henry Cavill was “stalking” the role before the show was even greenlit. Cavill allegedly called Hissirch “every day” until she relented and allowed him to audition. He also did all his own stunts.

While the series is said to be heavily based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher novels, the franchise’s popularity can be attributed to the best-selling video games by CD Projekt Red. 2015’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the most decorated video games in recent memory, garnering various “Game of the Year” awards and selling out upon its release.

There is not yet a release date for The Witcher on Netflix.