Netflix says its Witcher television series will be out at the end of this year

Netflix has confirmed that its Witcher television adaptation will air toward the end of this year, putting it a little ahead of its originally anticipated 2020 release date.

The news comes via a Netflix investor call, as reported by Deadline, in which chief content officer Ted Sarandso revealed that the fantasy drama would arrive in Q4, narrowing its launch down to some time in the last three months of 2019.

Netflix's series, if you're unfamiliar, is explicitly based on Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher novels, rather than CD Projeckt's video game adaptation, with Sapkowski serving as creative consultant. Showrunning and writing duties are being handled by Lauren Hissrich.

To date, news on Netflix's series has largely been confined to announcements around its core cast. Superman's Henry Cavill will star as Geralt of Rivia, for instance, while Anya Chalotra plays Yennefer. Anna Shaffer is Triss Merigold, Freya Allan is Ciri, and over 50 other roles had reportedly been cast by last October. The show is currently in production in Hungary.

Previously, showrunner Hissrich - a self-confessed "huge fan" of CD Projekt's Witcher series - explained that she'd consciously tried to "steer away from" the video game representation of Sapkowski's stories, to ensure that "the show we were creating was its own unique thing."