When the third season of “The Witcher” was released on Netflix, many fans may have wondered: What, is she only five episodes short? But it’s clear: Season 3 consists of the classic eight episodes again – but episodes 6 through 8 won’t be released until July 27, 2023. Many fans were confused because “The Witcher” seasons were never split. Otherwise, there were always all the episodes at once, as is usually the case with the streaming service.
But just for Henry Cavill’s farewell appearance as Geralt of Rivia, before Liam Hemsworth takes over from Season 4, there’s now this innovation. But why exactly? You have to look for the answer in another Netflix hit series: “Stranger Things” is “to blame” for not being able to delete all episodes of “The Witcher” season 3 from the start.
The division was not planned from the start!
Originally, it was not the plan at all to release the third season of The Witcher in two parts. However, producer Steve Gaub’s team knew there was a key moment midway through the season: the ball in Aretuza and the reveal of Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu) as the main villain. And while the team was in the middle of production, Stranger Things season 4 came out in two parts!
“We thought, okay, that’s interesting,” so Gaub in an interview with . The idea was born to do The Witcher in the same way as Stranger Things – the perfect point to split season three had already been identified: between episodes 5 and 6.
Buzz instead of binge
Netflix is now increasingly relying on two-part seasons. The advantage of the long-loved binge model: There will be a break between the two halves of the season, during which fans can discuss what they’ve seen and wonder what happens next. Theories are forged, the subject remains active on social media – the series is simply the center of attention for an extended period of time, gets the so-called “buzz”.
You know this model in a classic way from the weekly publishing of episodes. Series like “Game Of Thrones” or more recently “House Of The Dragon” have benefited greatly from the conversation each episode provided for an entire week.
Steve Gaub agrees, who misses the classic cliffhanger in the streaming world: “You just press play again as soon as an episode is over.” As we all, as avid series watchers, should know, most of the time this isn’t even necessary: the next episode often even starts automatically using the autoplay feature. “You don’t get the satisfaction of the anticipation, the discussions and the online exchange. So we wanted to give that to the fans, and the story made it possible to implement it,” says Gaub.