SDCC 2019: Behold, The First Trailer For Netflix’s THE WITCHER

You may or may not already be familiar with the Witcher gaming franchise, or the popular series of Witcher novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, but did you know that Netflix has produced its very own streaming series based on The Witcher? 

Oh. You did. 

OK, well, nevermind. I had a whole thing planned that totally would've blown your minds if this was news to you, but since we're on the same page: Netflix's The Witcher came to SDCC this year, and after lots of production stills and posters and teasers, they've finally released the very first trailer for the Henry Cavill-starring series. 

See what you think!

This looks pretty solid! The obvious touchstone here will be Game of Thrones (and, indeed, Netflix's shiny new toy is certain to draw in former viewers of that dearly-departed series), but that's mostly because Game of Thrones is the most recent fantasy series to dominate pop culture. My understanding is that the similarities here are mostly of the surface variety - you've got your castles, your intrigue, some creatures, lots of chainmail, probably some nudity - but The Witcher is most definitely telling its own story, one revolving around a Witcher (Cavill) named Geralt of Rivia.

What's a Witcher? Well, it's basically a monster hunter who's been trained in the Witch Arts. These Witchers aren't terribly popular in their home land of The Continent, and Geralt of Rivia will struggle to find his place among the humans, gnomes, elves and other creatures that inhabit his world while dealing with all the palace intrigue and drama surrounding him. 

To my eyes, The Witcher looks pretty good, if you're into this sort of thing, big and melodramatic and quite obviously backed by a sizable budget. Will this be the fantasy fandom's next televisual addiction? We won't know until The Witcher actually hits Netflix, and as of this writing we still don't know when that might be (rumor has it pegged for an "end of 2019" release, but we'll see).

What do you think, though? Into this? Not so much? Did you play the games, read the books? Sound off in the comments below, and stay tuned for more on The Witcher (and more out of this year's SDCC!) as further updates roll in.