Netflix’s hit show, The Witcher, is branching out with a spin-off named The Rats. Netflix has been cooking up this new series under the radar, featuring a squad of rebellious teens. While the streamer has not dropped an official confirmation on the series, whispers about its development have been swirling for months. The upcoming prequel series will focus on a crew of teenage renegades introduced in the closing moments of Season 3.

Now, based on multiple CVs associated with the show, there is now a speculated release date for the spin-off.

The speculated release date of The Witcher prequel

The driving force behind the project is The Witcher’s own Haily Hall, who has stepped into the lead writer and showrunner roles. The directorial expertise of Mairzee Almas, known for Shadow and Bone and The Sandman, will also grace an unspecified number of episodes. Lauren Hissrich, The Witcher‘s showrunner, and Tomek Baginski, executive producer, will be steering the ship as producers for this series as well. Although Netflix has not given an official nod, The Rats is speculated to release in the year 2024, as per What’s on Netflix. 

Redanian Intelligence first broke the news about the series, The Rats, in November 2022. What’s on Netflix also added weight to the information and disclosed the internal code name, “Riff Raff”. Now, the big question is whether the spinoff will delve into their origin story before meeting Ciri or during their time with Ciri before the events of Season 4.

Here is the rundown of everything known about the prequel up to this point, including its production status. 

How far is The Rats from reaching audiences?

The Rats series discreetly went into production with the undercover alias “Riff Raff‘ in Cape Town, South Africa. The shooting started in late April, with the initial plan to wrap things up by September 2023. However, as reported by Redanian Intelligence in July 2023, the series had already called it a wrap before September. Although the number of episodes is shrouded in mystery, it will reportedly follow in the footsteps of The Witcher: Blood Origin.

The series is hinted to potentially be as compact as four episodes. The production team’s decision to explore The Rats‘ characters before Season 4 makes sense, given the upcoming storyline with Ciri. However, The Rats aren’t exactly fan favorites in The Witcher community, and creating a whole spinoff around them will be challenging to make them more interesting and likable.

What do you think about The Rats’ release date? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!