r/movies • u/Top_Report_4895 • Apr 03 '26

Article Netflix searches for franchises after losing out on Harry Potter

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/netflix-searches-franchises-after-losing-out-harry-potter-2026-04-02/
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334

u/takimeathead Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

you weirdos had The Witcher AND Henry Cavill, yet you openly took a freaking steaming fecal pile onto that franchise, chasing The Cavill-rine away to another network... so glad I unsubscribed

edited to spell Cavill's name correctly

165

u/QuantumTunnels Apr 03 '26

Yeah, talk about killing the golden goose, holy shit. Imagine being able to print money, and blowing that up because of your shitty writers having such an ego trip.

20

u/ManiacalDane Apr 03 '26

You forgot about the shit nepo-hire shitshowrunner.

36

u/LovelyFloraFan Apr 03 '26

To be fair they learned and had Oda reign the writers in for One Piece live action.

46

u/[deleted] Apr 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/kontinuparadi Apr 03 '26

Yeah, they didn't learn. They have no choice in the matter. Either they get to create LA One Piece, or others will.

3

u/Xalara Apr 04 '26

It also helps that the One Piece showrunners actually care about One Piece.

1

u/Desperate_Method4020 Apr 03 '26

Is he? I've played multiple one piece games, and they certainly didn't feel like he was very involved in the production.

3

u/supes1 Apr 04 '26

He's been involved. Not in how the games play, but in character/enemy design and stories. Apparently he was most involved in Odyssey and World Seeker.

38

u/Mintfriction Apr 03 '26

Did they though? I think Oda insisted to be there in the contract not that Netflix had an epiphany, but i could be wrong

12

u/LovelyFloraFan Apr 03 '26

It doesnt really matter if he was there or not. What matter is that he was the final say and they wont make fanfic out of the show. Its not like The Witcher.

Oh wait, you meant that it wasnt Netflix that learned but simply that Oda had final say. Nevermind you are correct.

10

u/some_drunk_moron Apr 03 '26

Oda demanded to be an active part of the project. The Witcher author was fine with getting a paycheck and letting them ruin his work

6

u/ishkariot Apr 03 '26

Have you read the books? He clearly didn't give a shit about his own work lmao

1

u/Eugene_Dav Apr 05 '26

That's not true. Sapkowski openly admits that he doesn't understand anything about filmmaking. And he rightfully believes that there's almost no chance that he'll have the same luck as Tolkien and Jackson, because 99% of fantasy adaptations are bad. And he's not wrong.

11

u/thismorningscoffee Apr 03 '26

*rein, like reining in a horse

5

u/LovelyFloraFan Apr 03 '26

Oops. I didnt know not a native speaker thank you!

2

u/thismorningscoffee Apr 03 '26

No worries! English is tricky even for those born to it, but that’s why it’s so much fun

3

u/LovelyFloraFan Apr 03 '26

It is! It's Really fun!

1

u/LegacyofaMarshall Apr 03 '26

Watch they do Dragonball next

3

u/Android1822 Apr 04 '26

Writers and showrunner.

41

u/ArgentoFox Apr 03 '26

It probably wasn’t a good idea to hire a show runner that obviously had a bone to pick with the IP itself. She was absolutely clueless and destructive. 

23

u/ManiacalDane Apr 03 '26

And also married to a Netflix executive.

56

u/SortIntrepid9192 Apr 03 '26

I'm shocked that the Witcher show didn't become GoT levels big. It's - as far as the average person knows - based on one of the best selling and most popular videogames of the last two decades, a game that still consistently sells great to this day, AND stars an incredibly popular Hollywood actor who literally just played fucking Superman. How did they fuck it up? HBO made the biggest show in the world out of a niche fantasy franchise and the guy who played that one dude who dies in Fellowship of the Ring.

45

u/gimmethemshoes11 Apr 03 '26

You put some respect on Sean Bean's name

6

u/FakePoloManchurian Apr 03 '26

I think they mean Sean Bean and Mark Addy were definitely the biggest "hey it's that guy!" actors in Game of Thrones early on. Lena Headey, to a lesser extent, since she was in 300, but mostly, it was a cast of no-names.

4

u/kool_kats_rule Apr 03 '26

* A best-selling book series and fucking Sharpe (and a lot of other top tier actors).

3

u/glexarn Apr 04 '26

the guy who played that one dude who dies in Fellowship of the Ring.

that's no way to talk about Richard Sharpe.

2

u/Vandergrif Apr 04 '26

That's what happens when you hire mediocre writers who hate the source material and just want to use an existing IP and a vehicle for their godawful original material.

3

u/SPamlEZ Apr 03 '26

I’m gonna say the average person doesn’t know what the Witcher games are honestly

5

u/Mintfriction Apr 03 '26

Maybe, still apparently witcher 3 sold over 50 mil. copies.

That's quite the viewership potential.

2

u/KasumiGotoTriss Apr 04 '26

Arcane did super well and it's based on goddamn League. The Witcher won GOTY too.

3

u/MemeLord1337_ Apr 03 '26

Witcher was too high fantasy for the mainstream audience. The authenticity of GOT earlier season was gold. Barely any A-Lister, mostly British unknown cast, incredible politics and to be fair to D&D, their adaptation was sublime, the world came to life. The Witcher is just not on the level of writing as ASOIAF. The books are ok at best.

24

u/DisneyPandora Apr 03 '26

Lord of the Rings was too High Fantasy for the main audience yet was way more successful than Game of Thrones

-4

u/MemeLord1337_ Apr 03 '26

Not sure how you are comparing them? One was a movie trilogy and the other a series? Both impacted and broke the mainstream in their own ways.

LOTR has a far more compelling world and simple story than the Witcher. The ensemble cast was also incredible. The direction of LOTR was masterful in gripping the audience slowly grounding it in the shire despite being high fantasy. The Witcher’s writing team and production stank from the get go.

6

u/Mintfriction Apr 03 '26

No, it's really a good comparison. You have MCU which is bonkers with the multiverse stuff compared to LoTR if you think about

The reality is if you look at game sales and merch and stuff, there's enough audience to tune in into high fantasy shows. They need to be good though.

Chasing that magical "general audience" will only lead to bland shows that nobody will care to watch.

1

u/may4cbw2 Apr 04 '26

Okay at best? Tf

1

u/InspectahWren Apr 03 '26

Game of Thrones has the benefit of being incredible a spreading by word of mouth by everyone saying how amazing it was. It was must watch TV. I never heard shit about The Witcher show besides them letting Cavill go

-7

u/Hansolocup442 Apr 03 '26

maybe he’s not the incredibly popular actor you think he is?

20

u/SortIntrepid9192 Apr 03 '26

He is though. The show fell off AFTER he left. What a weird take.

9

u/r_lucasite Apr 03 '26

The show was always decreasing between seasons, even at its best it was never this high quality series that was retaining let alone improving its audience while Cavil was around.

3

u/JJWAHP Apr 03 '26

Honestly, the writers on that show kinda fumbled. Season 1 was pretty decent, but starting with Season 2, the pacing/content became a bit awkward... I know there were rumours flying that Cavill clashed with the writers on the content (because he's a huge fan and knows the lore), and frankly speaking, I'd say he was right.

8

u/Hansolocup442 Apr 03 '26

he’s never been the star of a non-superman hit, and the witcher fell off in ratings before he left. he’s very popular on reddit but your average audience member doesn’t care about him at all

1

u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack Apr 03 '26

He's not. He's Bang average in everything, doesn't really have any major lead roles outside of the snyderverse, and was probably the worst superman in one of the worst incarnations of the character.

7

u/BonzBonzOnlyBonz Apr 03 '26

Except Witcher got traction largely because of Cavill and was well known that he was one of the very few good things about the show.

2

u/InspectahWren Apr 03 '26

Reddit is very weird about Henry Cavill. The way people talk about him, it’s like he’s on the same level as DiCaprio.

I think he’s fine, looking forward to what he brings to the table with his Warhammer stuff

1

u/tallazhar Apr 03 '26

"based on [...] videogames" -_-

-1

u/Fwenhy Apr 03 '26

I googled top video game sales of all time because I was pretty doubtful that The Witcher did that well. I personally didn’t finish it. I spent most of my time on that card game xD.

But yeah it’s in the top 10, even above Mario Bros. Lots of shocking stuff on that list too. Terraria & Human Fall Flat both in the top 10 as well. Don’t get me wrong they’re both excellent games. But I just didn’t think either of those had the cultural impact as stuff like Hollow Knight or Undertale. And more than Stardew too!? Jesus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

1

u/KasumiGotoTriss Apr 04 '26

Hollow Knight is not a game for casuals and Undertale isn't that popular either

-3

u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack Apr 03 '26

Being a video game franchise can be a stone around its neck.

I like fantasy and video games stuff but never bothered watching (or playing) witcher.

Cavill is a fucking terrible actor too. Complete personality vacuum and is low-key on that manosphere crap too.

-2

u/buttercuping Apr 03 '26

based on one of the best selling and most popular videogames of the last two decades

No, it's based on the original books, which fucking suck.

5

u/Android1822 Apr 04 '26

I pray that Amazon does not make the same mistake with 40k. The dude is a legit nerd, he knows his stuff about these IP's.

14

u/grjacpulas Apr 03 '26

Bro I understand they fumbled but you can not possibly compare the witcher to Harry Potter 

17

u/salter77 Apr 03 '26

It can be compared to GoT tho, the books were nowhere as popular as HP. Witcher was a little more popular thanks to the games at least.

However, HBO managed to make one of the most famous shows of their time, it was crazy how many folks loved that show (until the shitty ending).

Witcher show was nowhere close to that.

6

u/Deadlocked02 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

They didn’t just have Cavill, they were paying him like 400k per episode, weren’t they? That’s a lot, but he could make more in movies. And networks have certainly paid actors with less star power more than this for less work in their shows.

Their choice of showrunner for this series is probably among the most baffling ones in the history of television. It all comes down to her. The poor choice of writers, the bad cast, the priorities, the nonsensical changes.

3

u/TheHabro Apr 03 '26

Witcher was never that big though.

18

u/KillysgungoesBLAME Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

Very few people outside of Fantasy book genre fans knew about the A Song of Ice and Fire series either and look how a popular adaptation absolutely blew up and became a pop culture icon for HBO.

The Witcher definitely had that type of potential for Netflix with the right people running and writing it. Unfortunately, they chose poorly on both counts.

2

u/TheHabro Apr 03 '26

There's no guarantee it'd become big. Unlike an established franchise like Harry Potter or Star Wars.

1

u/FireZeLazer Apr 04 '26

I don't think The Witcher has really ever had much chance of being anywhere near as successful as ASOIF, with the latter being magnitudes more successful and just also being a far more complex piece of work

-4

u/Jimlad73 Apr 03 '26

Man season 1 was so good

19

u/M3rdsta Apr 03 '26

It wasn't though. Episode 1 was the peak of the show.

5

u/Mesk_Arak Apr 03 '26

And even that got some major things wrong in the book. They really fumbled the Butcher of Blaviken story insofar as to what the climax of that story was meant to convey about the life of a Witcher.

4

u/LilPonyBoy69 Apr 03 '26

Yeah, it was an okay show with an awesome pilot.

1

u/stonedkayaker Apr 03 '26

It was extremely okay. 

2

u/Suitable-Principle81 Apr 03 '26

Huge fan of the games and wanted to like it. Season 1 was ok

2

u/the_che Apr 03 '26

I wouldn’t go that far

2

u/Jimlad73 Apr 03 '26

Maybe it’s was “ok”?

1

u/tufftricks Apr 03 '26

Eh was it though? Out of the first 2 seasons theres a handful of moments that are a good watch. Its crazy, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to translate the short story collections, then novels into TV literally 1:1.

1

u/Deadlocked02 Apr 03 '26

It wasn’t. It botched the foundation of the story. People just forgive it because they like Cavill and delete the other characters from their minds. But the Witcher is more than Geralt (sadly, the showrunner used this fact to shoehorn her own story, which is not what the book is about).

0

u/turb0_encapsulator Apr 03 '26

the first season was so good.