The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf Review

Here’s my The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf Review which is now streaming on Netflix featuring the voices of Theo James as a young Vesemir.

Check out the trailer for Nightmare of the Wolf below:

This feature animated film is set years or even decades before The Witcher TV series starring Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia as well as the games from CD PROJEKT RED including The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt and tells the story of Vesemir (Theo James). For this adventure, he gets tangled into the web of intrigue implicating the Witchers; effectively making them a mark for the nearby kingdom. Meanwhile Vesemir also reunites with Illyana now going by Lady Zebst who is also embroiled in a rivalry with Tetra Gilcrest.

Action and Visuals

The actions pretty intense and can be brutal from time to time. Expect a lot of gore too because this is after all the world of the Witcher. You name it, they it too from body horror to full on gore.

Meanwhile the animation and the fight scenes are fluid like the climatic battle (which I will not spoil mind you). It is nice to know that the Vesemir we met in the games and soon in The Witcher season 2 was such an athletic and swashbuckling warrior when he was younger. This definitely puts Studio Mir on the map in my book.

Music

The music we all know and love is also here which is a good thing. And it also reminds us that it may take awhile before we even get to have another Witcher game if that will even be possible at all. Sound design and choices also work well with what’s onscreen. Even dungeons and abandoned elven garrisons feel much creepier thanks to the score.

Story

Theo James as Vesemir

“Nightmare of the Wolf” has a pretty straightforward story and follows familiar tropes that made Geralt’s The Witcher story such a BIG deal. There’s a bit of politics and a lot of lore but good on the production team for dumbing it down AND containing everything we need to know in there. No need to scramble for a source book or check articles online too. Actually the only time we will really go and look forward in this timeline is when they reveal that the kids were the last Witchers of the Wolf School of Kaer Morhen namely Geralt, Lambert, Eskel and Remus (the witcher that got iced by the Striga in season 1).

What makes this a competent addition to the Witcher franchise under Netflix’s belt is the fact that its a prologue of sorts for season 2 which finds Cavill’s Geralt asking to be brought to Vesemir (who will be played by Kim Bodnia). So at least when we see the ruins of the once mighty fort of the Witchers, we know exactly what happened. It also gives new fans an idea of the process of making Witchers. This was heavily detailed in the games and had been briefly touched in the live action series.

Fans of the game and the books should get a kick of visually seeing the Trial of Grass as its done to Vesemir and his compatriots.

9/10

Honestly, I got a kick watching The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. I’d definitely recommend it to fans drawn to the Netflix series and for gamers who have already finished the game and/or miss it already.

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook for more geek news and updates!