It has only been available on the streaming service for a matter of days.
But already The Witcher has had an astonishing rise to the top and has become one of Netflix’s highest rating original series on IMDb, just days after its December 20 release.
The eight-part series starring Henry Cavill, 36, has managed to beat the likes of Stranger Things and Peaky Blinders in ratings on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).
Success: The Witcher has had an astonishing rise to the top and has become one of Netflix’s highest rating original series on IMDb, just days after its December 20 release
According to Forbes, the show kicked off with a rating of 8.9, which narrowly edged it ahead of shows including Black Mirror, Narcos, Peaky Blinders, Stranger Things and House of Cards – who had scores of 8.8.
However, it soon slipped down to 8.8, meaning it now sits among Netflix’s highest ranking TV heavyweights.
While shows including The Crown and The Haunting of Hill House bring up the rear with 8.7 ratings.
Forbes claims that The Witcher’s early high rankings may fall over time, but not by much, cementing itself as a huge success for the channel.
Popular: The eight-part series starring Henry Cavill, 36, has managed to beat the likes of Stranger Things and Peaky Blinders in ratings on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
The Witcher is an eight-episode adaptation of the bestselling medieval book series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.
The series centres on protagonist Geralt of Rivia (Cavill), a monster hunter known as a Witcher who travels the countryside slaying terrifying beasts.
But in the Netflix adaptation, the story will also examine Princess Ciri (Freya Allan) and Yennefer of Vengerberg’s (Anya Chalotra) arcs, as the trio’s intertwining destinies find them coming together in full force.
Created for TV by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, the show has already been renewed for a second season by the video-on-demand platform, who announced the good news in November.
Beat: According to Forbes, the show kicked off with a rating of 8.9, which narrowly edged it ahead of shows including Black Mirror, Narcos, Peaky Blinders, Stranger Things and House of Cards – who had scores of 8.8
Sitting pretty: However, it soon slipped down to 8.8, meaning it now sits among Netflix’s highest ranking TV heavyweights
Early reviews for the fantasy series saw fans praise the show, with one even claiming the show made ‘Game Of Thrones fights look awful.’
Revealing their spoiler-free thoughts on Twitter, one user wrote: The Fight Scenes In #Witcher WOW Makes #GameofThrones Fights Look Awful – Watching The Witcher Season 1 This Weekend (sic)’
While another added: ‘Oh I will say this. The fight scenes in The Witcher make Game Of Thrones fight scenes look like two drunks fighting outside a bar.’
And another critic gushed: ‘The fight choreography is insane. First fight Geralt gets into is beautifully savage. The blend of swordplay and Geralt’s signs is perfection.’
Meanwhile, The Witcher’s showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich has insisted that people don’t need to read the books before watching the series.
New in town: The series centres on protagonist Geralt of Rivia (Cavill), a monster hunter known as a Witcher who travels the countryside slaying terrifying beasts
Characters: But in the Netflix adaptation, the story will also examine Princess Ciri (Freya Allan, above) and Yennefer of Vengerberg’s (Anya Chalotra) arcs
The producer and screenwriter urged them to give the fantasy series a try even if they hadn’t read the wildly popular noels in an interview with The Wrap published on Saturday.
Henry Cavill stars in the US–Poland co-production as Geralt of Rivia, a warrior who travels an unnamed continent that resembles medieval Europe while hunting beasts and fantastical creatures for profit.
The character is a witcher, a person who develops magical powers as a child in order to ward off the deadly creatures.
But the Polish series of short stories and novels, first published in the mid-1980s before receiving their first English translation in 2007, are full of unfamiliar names and places that might throw off some viewers.
Pleased: Early reviews for the fantasy series saw fans praise the show, with one even claiming the show made ‘Game Of Thrones fights look awful’
Iconic: The Witcher is an eight-episode adaptation of the bestselling medieval book series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, and has also been adapted into a hit video-game franchise
Adding to the show’s complexity is the fact that there are three different timelines running simultaneously, which departs from the novels and isn’t immediately obvious to first-time viewers.
‘The place names aren’t familiar, the people’s names sound weird. Nothing is really familiar,’ admitted Hissrich.
‘The most important thing to me in Episode 1 is that you understand what a witcher is. Once you have that knowledge, then you can kind of be along for the ride and things that seem confusing in Episode 1, hopefully, by the time you get to Episode 2 and Episode 3, you go “Oh my God, I totally understand what these things are now — but I understand why it wasn’t told to me immediately upfront.”
‘I think the journey is definitely part of that experience,’ she added.
Stay the course: Hissrich urged fans to stick around: ‘By the time you get to Episode 2 and Episode 3, you go “Oh my God, I totally understand what these things are now”