Henry Cavill‘s departure from Netflix’s epic fantasy series ‘The Witcher’ may have seemed like the final nail in the coffin of The Witcher media franchise for Netflix, but as new information comes out, it seems like Netflix is spending more than ever on the upcoming season of the series.
The upcoming Season 4 starring Liam Hemsworth as the titular Witcher will cost Netflix approximately $27 million per episode, which puts the total cost of the season at a whopping $216 million. The information about the cost of the upcoming season comes from both Forbes and the Witcher fan site Redanian Intelligence.
As far as previous seasons go, the first season of The Witcher series cost around $92.5 million, with the second season costing nearly double at $176.3 million. Even Cavill’s last season as Geralt of Rivia cost only $175 million, and now with only two seasons left, it seems Netflix is going all out and opening up its coffers despite a major shake-up and the bad reviews Season 3 got.
Other Witcher projects like Blood Origin cost around $95.7 million, with the troubled spin-off series “The Rats: A Witcher’s Tale” racking up the bill to around $20 million. While initially The Rats: A Witcher’s Tale was conceptualized as a series after footage for the spin-off was shot, it was decided that it would be cut down and released as a TV movie.
After adding up every The Witcher movie and TV show available budget information, it seems like Netflix has spent a total $720 billion on The Witcher media franchise, and that doesn’t even take into account the two anime films and the last season of the fantasy series.
Based on Andrzej Sapkowski‘s novel series of the same name, The Witcher was adapted for Netflix by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, and it revolves around the exploits of Geralt of Rivia, a mutated human whose only goal is to hunt monsters for coin.
The upcoming Season 4 of The Witcher is all set to premiere on Netflix on October 30.