Netflix's 'Tolkien Meets Game Of Thrones' Fantasy Series Has 4 Seasons & 2 Movies

Published Sep 15, 2026, 3:15 PM EDT Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy. Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones). The fantasy genre doesn't get much better than J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones, but Netflix has certainly taken its best shot. The modern television landscape has essentially been defined by Game of Thrones, and in the years since this hit series aired, just about every streamer has tried to duplicate that success. Stretching back even further, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings established the traditional structure of the high fantasy genre, influencing modern additions even more. Creating fantasy projects that come anywhere near the powerful significance of these two IPs is no simple thing, and it's difficult to say that any book, show, or movie has done so. However, when it comes to structure, themes, and general vibe, Netflix's The Witcher comes pretty darn close. The show is based on the fantasy book series of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski, which also served as the foundation for the popular video game franchise. Netflix's The Witcher TV show was the first to bring all of this to the small screen. Like The Lord of the Rings, Netflix's The Witcher features a fairly traditional fantasy world with elves, dwarves, sorcerers, dragons, and beyond. Tolkien was known for incorporating various mythologies into his work, and Sapkowski has done something similar, leaning heavily on global folklore. Unlike Lord of the Rings, however, The Witcher is dark, gritty, and mature. This is where that Game of Thrones element comes in. Netflix's offering is highly political, violent, and sexually explicit. The Witcher is headed into its fifth season, which is expected to wrap up the central series. The show initially premiered in 2019, and, since then, a couple of animated spinoff films have hit Netflix. These are titled The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, which has a rare 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, scored at 60%. This naturally means there is a lot of content to enjoy here, and there's surely more to come. What The Future May Hold For Netflix's The Witcher Franchise Fantasy TV shows don't easily avoid controversy, and The Witcher has attracted more than most. The TV show has been criticized for its numerous changes to Andrzej Sapkowski's canon, and the major recasting of Henry Cavill's Geralt of Rivia for Liam Hemsworth in season 4 solidified its complicated reputation. Still, it wasn't enough to get The Witcher definitively canceled, so we can expect the upcoming season 5 to bring a satisfying close to the story. This also means the franchise has plenty of room to expand over time. While the central The Witcher TV show covers the foundational story, Sapkowski's novels and the Witcher video game franchise have taken things much further. It's for this reason that Netflix could release its existing animated films, and there are even more characters and adventures that could receive the same treatment. Recently, the game franchise shifted protagonists, focusing on Ciri rather than Geralt. It's perfectly possible that the screen franchise will do the same, but that's just one of dozens of potential paths forward. Whether any new The Witcher TV shows or movies are live-action or animated is another matter. Netflix could, again, head in either direction, but the issues around the central series imply that another animated project would be more lucrative. What's more, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is the screen franchise's highest-scored installment on Rotten Tomatoes, so there's plenty of reason to hope that further animated movies or TV shows could perform just as spectacularly. Suffice it to say, we're sure to get more from Netflix's The Witcher​​​​​​. Release Date December 20, 2019 Network Netflix Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich Cast Anya Chalotra Yennefer of Vengerberg The Witcher follows Geralt of Rivia, a mutated monster hunter navigating a turbulent world where humanity’s darker nature often eclipses the monstrous.