Take the Black Podcast: Let’s talk about Watchmen and The Rise of Skywalker by David Harris (Razor)

Netflix’s adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher novels is coming out…soon — I don’t know why Netflix hasn’t gotten around to giving us an exact release date — and we’re learning more about it day by day. Just today, Italian publication Corriere uploaded several new official images from the first season. Let’s take a look!

First up, a villager tentatively touches the corpse of a kikimore, a deadly monster terrorizing the countryside. Witcher fansite Redanian Intelligence points out that this image is from the show’s pilot episode, which will adapt “The Lesser Evil,” a short story from the book The Last Wish.

In fact, three out of the four new images here are from the pilot. Without giving too much away, “The Lesser Evil” involves the witcher Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) visiting the town of Blaviken and trying to get a reward for killing the kikimore, monster-hunting basically being his profession. Unfortunately, the alderman isn’t interested in that, but the local wizard, Master Irion, might be.

Geralt visits the wizard to see what he can see, but ends up stumbling into a deadly conflict between him and a young woman named Renfri. I won’t tell you how it ends, but for the rest of the series, Geralt is known as the Butcher of Blaviken, so you know it’s not pleasant.

It’s a good story to start of the series. It focuses tightly on Geralt and gives you an idea of the kind of person he is and the sort of world he must navigate. That said, the final image from the third episode, which looks to focus more on Geralt’s on-again, off-again sorceress love of his life Yennefer (Anya Chalotra):

In the early Witcher books, Yennefer doesn’t get as much attention as Geralt, but it looks like showrunner Lauren Hissrich will amp up her role for the show. Just as Geralt had to undergo painful physical and mental transformations to become a witcher, Yennefer underwent her own trials to become a sorceress. It looks like this episode will look into her past and depict how she came to be the uncompromising woman Geralt comes to know.

We get a little hint of the pain involved in the show’s trailer:

We’ll learn more when The Witcher finally drops on Netflix, which will be…sometime this year. You’re killing me, Netflix.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels