Fans have had their eyes peeled for the second live-action spinoff of Netflix’s The Witcher since November of 2022. Going by the codename of “Riff Raff,” The Rats began filming in Cape Town, South Africa, in April 2023. Back then, it had a scheduled production timeline from April to September. But surprisingly, the production wrapped up much ahead of its schedule on July 1st. Despite fans eagerly waiting for its premiere, there have not been any signals or thumbs-ups from the creators or the streaming platform.

Now, the latest report about The Witcher's much-anticipated spin-off has the potential to further add salt to the wounds of fans.

The Rats was meant to span either 6 or 8 episodes and the creators had even given a brief plot description of the show. However, just a few days ago, Redanian Intelligence found out that only one or two episodes out of the planned six or eight were actually filmed. After catching a glimpse of some early footage, the publication got word that Netflix opted not to move forward with The Rats for a full season.

The logical conclusion here is that something shifted along the way, similar to what happened with Blood Origin. Blood Origin was abruptly cut short during post-production, and everyone saw the fate of the series. Now it seems like The Rats filmed a version that was already shortened. There is a possibility that the show could either be folded into The Witcher Season 4 or released as a special. 

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Going by that, it leaves fans with just one potential release timeline for The Rats or Riff Raff.

So far, The Witcher franchise has dropped a spinoff between each season of the main series. And some recent reports have revealed that The Witcher will come to a close after its fifth season, and the final season will be filmed consecutively with the fourth, currently in production. With that in mind, it would not make sense for the producers to drop a spinoff after the main series wraps up.

With that in consideration, there is speculation brewing that The Rats might make its debut before the final season. As of now, the fate of the show is a mystery. It could be that it has been slimmed down to 3-4 episodes, but there is also talk of it possibly turning into a full-length feature film. Whatever goes down, it is starting to seem like The Rats will not be released in the way fans might have hoped.

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What do you think about this new update? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!